Meet the Parents
by pimpilidimpi
Summary: ON HOLD!Harry travels back in time and joins his parents in their sixth year at Hogwarts.Some romance later on. Read and enjoy: ... and maybe review...Ootp spoilers.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer:** Ugh, I own nothing.

**Summary:** Harry travels back in time and join his parents in their sixth year at Hogwarts. Not as stupid as it sounds (or at least I hope so). OotP spoilers!

**Author note:** This is a slightly edited version of ch.1. Aln –Mai offered to beta-read my story, so finally the spelling and grammar mistakes are gone. Real thanks to you, Aln-Mai:)

Chapter 1

Life can be hard sometimes. Sometimes, it can be very sad. Sometimes, it can also be filled with small, irritating things which drive you insane. Those three statements combined would more or less describe how the life of Harry Potter looked like in the beginning of July, after his fifth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

He tried as hard as he could to forget about all that had happened—the death of his godfather, the fight in the Ministry and the prophecy. So, he filled his day with different things to do, to distract himself. He worked in Aunt Petunia's garden, even though this year she actually tried to forbid him from doing any housework (probably due to the fact that Mad-Eye Moody had really scared the Dursleys at the King's Cross station). He read different books—anything that he could find—his old school books, some stupid romance novels, Dudley's comics and few large tomes about Occlumency, Legilimency and Dark Arts sent by Hermione. He did his homework. He answered all the letters he received, and there was quite a lot of the—not only from his friends, but also from total strangers, as he was a public hero again.

It didn't really help. Different thoughts and memories haunted him and the moment of Sirius' death kept coming back in his dreams. He couldn't stop wondering what would have happened if only he hadn't stopped Occlumency lessons—if only he hadn't gone to the Ministry—if only he hadn't been angry at Sirius and opened his present...

He felt sorry and guilty. He was also terrified by the fact that he was responsible for the future of the wizarding world. It was his job to get rid of Voldemort, one of the most powerful and reckless dark wizards ever. Piece of cake for a student. Nothing to worry about.

He didn't really care at that time if he was going to die. But he was simply petrified with the thought that Voldemort would attack people around him just because they were his friends. And losing another close person—that would be too much.

He didn't cry late into the night or anything like that. But he never really smiled either. His friend's letters were full of concern, and he replied all the time, saying that he was going to be all right. But it was only a lie. Instead of slowly getting over his sorrows, he was just hiding his feelings deeper and deeper inside.

* * *

Remus Lupin was sitting in the kitchen in the Temporary Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix. After Sirius' death, they had to move out of Grimmauld Place, which had been inherited by Narcissa Malfoy—the only descendant of the Black family who wasn't outlawed yet.

The Temporary Headquarters, a small house in a Muggle village named Lastfall, was much smaller and much cozier than the Black family mansion. It had also quite poor protections compared to the former Headquarters, and that was the reason why people kept calling it 'temporary.'

One of the meetings had just finished, but Remus was to stay and guard the house—members of the Order did it in turns now that Sirius was gone. He waited patiently as everybody Disapparated one by one, until finally the only person remaining was Dumbledore.

"You wanted to talk with me privately, didn't you, Remus?" the old wizard asked, taking a seat on the opposite side of the table. "So—what do you want to discuss?"

"Professor, I'm not sure—I have this impression that—I don't know—it's about Harry..."

"Yes..." the Hogwarts' headmaster slowly nodded and continued with a thoughtful expression, "I hope he is finally getting better. It is a very short time he has now..."

Remus looked up and calmly asked, "Short time for what, Professor?"

"Remus..." Dumbledore smiled sadly, "I can't possibly tell how much longer Lord Voldemort will wait, after he lost his chance to hear the prophecy and the Ministry has admitted that he is back to his full power. He will strike any moment now—he already did after all, didn't he? We cannot waste time for grieving those who died. Nor we can give up. We have to be ready to fight. Otherwise Sirius' sacrifice would be useless. And Harry—it's quite obvious that Lord Voldemort will try again to attack him. Sooner or later—it's especially Harry, who needs to prepare."

"Yes—well, I think he is preparing—he wrote that he is currently reading _Mastering Occlumency_. It's pretty advanced stuff—but I think he feels guilty for what has happened, Professor."

"Well—I expected that—he shouldn't feel this way, but I expected he would. Did he write to you about it?"

"No, and that's what worries me the most. He says that he is all right—his letters are so impersonal, so emotionless. I think that we should do something, Professor. He is just closing in. I wrote to his friends about it and they said he is similar towards them."

"What do you suggest, then?" Dumbledore asked, raising his eyebrows.

"He shouldn't be alone now, Professor. After all he's been there for almost a month—isn't it enough for him to keep his protection?"

"I hope it is—but we can't risk it, Remus. It's just too important..."

"More important then Harry himself?!"

"Remus, I already made wrong decisions because I was concerned about Harry's happiness rather than preparing him for what he has to face. I believe that those decisions are one of the reasons of his tragedy now. And I'm not going to make the same mistake again. He has to grow up faster than other boys of his age do..."

"It's just so unfair."

"Yes—I shall think of something to cheer him up. A very special birthday present perhaps." Saying that, Dumbledore smiled with a characteristic twinkle in his eyes.

* * *

It was Aunt's Petunia scream that woke Harry up that day. He yawned and stretched in his bed, hoping that whatever Dudley did, it wouldn't steam up his aunt too much. Not that he minded her being upset, but he didn't want to listen to her stupid comments for the whole day.

Slowly the yells from downstairs were starting to make some sense to Harry.

"You again! No! Get out!" That couldn't have been Dudley, could it?

"He's sending those goddamn letters! What do you want now, you—you freaks!" Harry was sure now that it must have been some wizards who caused Aunt Petunia to scream like that. But as to what kind of wizards, he didn't know.

He took out his wand and got out of bed. Then he opened his trunk and started to search it for the Invisibility Cloak. Finally ready, or at least as ready as he could be at the moment, he started to go down the stairs, careful to make as little noise as he could.

He was halfway down when he noticed who the visitors were. He sighed with relief and took off the Invisibility Cloak.

"Tonks! Professor Lupin! Mr. Weasley!" Harry shouted with almost genuine smile. "Hello! What are you doing here?"

"Hi, Harry," Mr. Weasley smiled back at sleepy teenager, who looked pretty funny, dressed in much too big pajamas, with half of his body still invisible and wand in his hand. "Happy Birthday!"

Aunt Petunia screamed. The three wizards laughed.

Harry tried to hide his surprise at what Mr. Weasley had just said. He forgot about his birthday! It had never happened before. Even when he hadn't had any friends and the Dursleys—on purpose—had given him an additional amount of housework on that day, he had always remembered.

He hoped that none of the visitors had noticed his surprise and once again tried to smile.

"Thanks, Mr. Weasley!"

"Harry," It was Tonks' turn now to shout, "All the best for you!"

"Yes, Harry, all the best," Remus Lupin added. "And listen, here is your first present..."

Harry took a small box mumbling some sort of thanks and started to unwrap the gift. Remus, however, grabbed his hand and said with the mischievous grin, "Better get dressed first, if you want my advice."

Harry looked at his former professor curiously and after a while resumed opening the box.

"It can't hurt if I just take a look..." he started to say, when all of sudden, the world started to whirl around him.

He immediately recognized the feeling. The gift must have been a Portkey! He cursed under his breath, hoping that he would not end up in some sort of public place like Diagon Alley. He was more than a little relieved when the magical travel was over and he found himself in the Burrow, facing what appeared to be the whole Order of the Phoenix, Weasley family and some members of the DA.

Their expressions were shocked at first, and then everybody burst out with laughter. Harry smiled, uncertain what to do, and finally started laughing as well, for the first time during his summer vacation.

Ginny was trying to say something that sounded a little bit like "Surprise," but she didn't manage. Ron and Hermione were on the floor, almost crying. Mrs. Weasley had tears on her cheeks, and the twins were laughing so hard that their whole bodies were shaking. Professor Snape (_What was he doing here_, Harry wondered) had an evil and satisfied smirk on his face.

Everybody had started to slowly calm down when Remus Lupin Apparated with loud _pop_. He looked at the scene in front of him, grinned and said to Harry, "Told you to get dressed first!"

Everybody started to laugh again.

Soon Tonks and Mr. Weasley appeared. It was Tonks who spoke.

"Ha, ha! Wotcher! It turned out even better than I imagined! I've got your stuff Harry! Er—I don't know if you realized—this is a surprise birthday party—ha, ha!" With that, she erupted with laughter.

Soon, everybody calmed down and started to greet Harry and give him their best wishes. Hermione hugged him and whispered "Just stay yourself" into his ear. Mrs. Weasley smiled and tried to say something, but suddenly she felt tears in her eyes and simply smiled sympathetically. Fred and George sang "Happy birthday" aloud and soon everybody joined them.

After that Mr. Weasley said aloud, "I know that you all want to give your congratulations to Harry right now, but please, let him get dressed first! Fred, George, help him with the trunk..."

Soon, Harry was wearing his normal clothes and he came downstairs again.

He felt the very same warmth inside him, which he had felt when members of the Order came to the station to talk to Dursleys. Like there was someone there for him after all, someone who cared...

The party went on with presents, good things to eat and loads of fun. Fred and George provided a large supply of joke stuff. When half of the birthday guests started to turn in different colors (Snape was pink!), Fred winked to Harry and whispered, "Just couldn't have missed the birthday party of our main investor."

DA members kept telling Harry how well he had prepared them for their O.W.L.s. Ernie Macmillian grinned and exclaimed that he had gotten an 'E' for Defense Against the Dark Arts instead of the birthday wishes. It was similar with the others—Neville had an 'O'! Harry grinned at them. He had an 'O' from DADA as well.

There was one thing, however, that Harry couldn't help wondering about. What was Snape doing here? The Potions Master hated him as much as he could; it just didn't fit.

Soon, however, he dismissed these thoughts and joined some people in going outside to play a game of Quidditch.

* * *

If Harry had stayed inside, he would have probably witnessed a very unusual activity.

As soon as he was outside, Mr. Weasley Disapparated only to re-Apparate a moment later with none other than Albus Dumbledore accompanying him.

Dumbledore greeted everyone present with short nod.

"Harry is outside? Good. We can get to the final part of the preparations. Severus? I trust you brought the potion?"

Snape answered without a smile:

"Of course, Headmaster. However, I still think it is too much effort only to cheer up one spoiled adolescent."

"Yes, Severus, you are certainly right..." said the old wizard absentmindedly. "Arthur, is the room ready?"

"Yes, it's Percy old bedroom—not that we need it, anyway...."

"Good, so let's get right to work—lead the way, Arthur, please."

They all went upstairs, and the only person left was Lupin, who smiled to himself, thinking about the very, very special present which Dumbledore was about to give Harry.


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer**: Ugh, I own nothing.

**Summary:** Harry travels back in time and joins his parents in their sixth year at Hogwarts. Not as stupid as it sounds (or at least I hope so). OotP spoilers!

**Author note:** Ok - so this is the second edited chapter - thanks once again Aln-Mai:)

**Chapter 2**

Harry entered the kitchen. His cheeks were flushed and his hair messed by the wind. He looked much better than he had that very same morning. Still, there was some sadness in his eyes. It had never really left them.

He was surprised to see the Hogwarts headmaster sitting on one of the stools and apparently talking quietly to Ron's little owl, Pig.

"Headmaster? Hello?" he said uncertainly.

"Well, hello, Harry. How are you?" There was some amount of concern in the old man's voice. "I watched you while you played Quidditch in the garden. I guess that you are little bit better now, aren't you?"

"Yes, I'm all right, thank you."

"Well, best wishes then."

"Thanks..."

"Now, Harry, I have also a present for you—something that hopefully will help you cope with what you've been through—and become truly 'all right.'"

Harry raised his eyebrows. That was quite unexpected. What could Albus Dumbledore possibly give him?

"Come with me, Harry—I can see you are interested—I believe you should first see it alone, but who knows, maybe you will choose to show it to your friends later."

Harry followed the wizard upstairs, to the room which used to belong to Percy. To his surprise, the room was absolutely dark.

"_Pastorale terminus_," said Dumbledore, and just after that, the floor of the room started to shine with different colors.

"Look down, Harry." Harry looked down.

"What you see now is an effect of a quite powerful spell. It won't wear off until midnight, or maybe even longer. It allows you to see the past events connected with people you have feelings for. Only those who have died, mind you; you can't possibly use it to spy on your friends or anything like that. But I believe you will find better purposes. Have a good time, Harry." With that, Dumbledore Disapparated from the room, and Harry was left alone.

He bent on his knees and looked down. It looked like the floor had been enchanted into some sort of a screen. The blurry image started to clear up a little. Slowly, Harry started to recognize events in front of him. It was a wedding. A big white limousine arrived in front of some church. A bride got out. And Harry recognized her immediately. It was his mother. Her hair was pinned in some sort of fancy hairstyle, with a lot of flowers. She wore a white, simple dress and looked both happy and nervous.

Harry felt a sudden dryness in his throat while he followed his mother into the church. There was bright, happy music, and his father was standing next to the altar, dressed in something that looked like dress robes and a suit mixed together. Next to him stood Sirius, with a wild grin. Further in the back, Harry noticed many other people he knew: Remus Lupin, Peter Pettigrew, Dumbledore, McGonagall, the Longbottoms, Moody and even Aunt Petunia. All of them looked visibly younger.

Harry kneeled, staring. There were tears on his cheeks. He remained like this, not moving, absolutely oblivious to the world around him, with his gaze transfixed on the different images shown on the floor.

* * *

It was around five o'clock when the guests started to feel impatient. They knew, of course, that Harry was supposed to receive a very special gift, and were not surprised by the fact that he had disappeared. But he had been gone for more then three hours now, and they couldn't help wondering what he had gotten. 

Most anxious were, of course, Ron and Hermione. Both of them shared the feeling that Harry should show them the present—after all, they were his closest friends.

"Maybe it's some sort of book—I don't know..." Hermione said.

"Come on—if it were you who disappeared, Hermione, then I would be sure it was a book—but Harry?!"

"Well, if it was something really interesting..."

"Yeah, right! You know what I think? I think we should go and check."

"No, Ron! Remember what Dumbledore said? Let him just be alone..."

"God, he can have fun with this whatever-Dumbledore-gave-him stuff some other day! I mean, look, everybody wants him to come down. He has candles to blow—it's his birthday party after all! Do whatever you want, but I'm going up to check on him."

"OK—let's go, then..."

And so they left, telling everybody that they just wanted to see what new pranks Fred and George were up to. Soon they were upstairs, in front of Percy's room.

"He's very quiet, isn't he?" Hermione noted.

"Maybe he's just fallen asleep," Ron said with a smirk, but there was a hint of worry in his voice.

Hermione knocked delicately and opened the door. For a moment, they just stared at the scene in front of them.

Harry was lying on the floor, hands under his chin, watching something below.

Both Ron and Hermione looked down and gasped.

"I read about it..." Hermione whispered. "Pastorale charm—it's awfully time consuming—I can't believe it—now I understand why Harry didn't come down..."

"So what exactly is going on?" Ron asked, not bothering to stay quiet.

Harry raised his head, finally noticing the two teenagers who had just entered. He had some tears on his cheeks, but he was smiling.

"Hi, guys..." he said. "It's my parents, look..."

Ron and Hermione didn't need any encouragement; they were already observing the images below.

They could see a young couple, obviously the Potters. Lily held a little baby—probably Harry—in her arms, while James was telling her something animatedly, making wide gestures and smiling happily. Then he said something that made Lily smile and she gave him Harry. James took the baby and kissed him on the forehead. Lily grinned and kissed James on the cheek.

"Wow..." was all that Ron managed to say.

"Your parents were so cheerful..." Hermione stated, glancing at Harry, to see his reaction at what she had just said.

"Yeah—I've seen their wedding, you know? And Sirius was there..."

"Wow, Harry! That's just so cool!" Ron exclaimed. "And did you see them becoming Animagi?"

"No—I didn't get to the school years, yet..."

"Then let's see it! Imagine, Marauders in action!"

At first, Harry was not so sure that he wanted to show his friends what Sirius and James had been like. He still could remember what he had seen in Snape's Pensieve. But then, there was no reason to hide it. He was with his friends, after all, and they would accept him, no matter how badly his father had treated Snape. In fact, Ron hated "the evil git"—as he usually referred to Hogwarts' Potions Master—so much, that he might find Marauders' behavior amusing.

Harry looked at the floor. He knew instinctively what to do. He pictured his parents and Hogwarts in his mind, and slowly, the images on the floor started to move.

The new image they saw was Hogwarts castle. The sun was high and everything seemed peaceful.

The only problem was that there was nobody there.

"Well?" Hermione asked. "What's going on?"

"I'm not sure—something must have gone wrong."

"Maybe you should say some incantation?"

"No, Dumbledore would have told me if I had to..."

"What's the point in showing us Hogwarts without people there, anyway?" Ron said in irritated voice.

Hermione answered immediately, "Oh, Ron, don't be stupid—it's not our Hogwarts, it must somewhere in the past—the trees look smaller."

"Then why don't we see Marauders, Miss I-know-better?"

"You wanted to see them in their Animagus form. Maybe they're transformed?"

"No!" Harry interrupted "They're not there. I just don't get it! Why doesn't it listen?"

He sat on his knees and pressed his hands to the floor. Slowly, as if it were an enchantment, he began to mutter: "Show me my parents! I want to see my parents! When they were my age! At Hogwarts!"

Suddenly, something strange started to happen. A stream of light bound Harry's hands to the castle below them. Images began to whirl, and suddenly they were all surrounded by colors. Everything whirled faster and faster around the group of teenagers. It got to hard to stand, and one by one, the young wizards finally blacked out.


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: **I still own nothing I'm afraid. Although I wish I did 

**Summary:** Harry travels back in time and join his parents in their sixth year at Hogwarts. Not as stupid as it sound (or at least I hope so). OotP spoilers!

**Author note:** The third chapter is now edited:) Once again thanks o Aln-Mai.

**Chapter 3**

Hermione woke up feeling slightly dizzy. Shy was lying in some bed, covered with a soft blanket and wearing a nightgown that definitely didn't belong to her. Her head ached painfully.

She opened her eyes and found herself in an unfamiliar room. Or was it really unfamiliar? She had a feeling that she has been here before, although she couldn't remember when. At any rate, "where" seemed of little consequence at the moment. What had happened?

Suddenly, she heard some people talking in hushed voices nearby. They seemed to be coming from behind a closed door not too far from her bed.

She sat up and swung her legs out of bed, trying to stand, but her whole body was shaking as if from terrible exhaustion. Slowly, she made one wobbly step toward the door that the voices were behind.

She tried to make another step, but she lost her balance and fell with a loud _bump_.

The conversation died abruptly and someone opened the door.

"Good Lord, girl! You were unconscious for over a day and you're trying to get up already?!"

Hermione gasped. Unless she was very mistaken, there was a twenty-year-younger version of Madam Pomfrey in front of her. She stared at the woman, while strange thoughts flowed rapidly through her head. What was going on?

"Are you—are you a relative of Madam Pomfrey? I mean, Poppy Pomfrey?"

The woman, who was now helping Hermione up, looked at her with surprise as she seated Hermione gently on a bed. She touched her forehead and examined her with concern for a while. Finally, she answered.

"Well, I am Poppy Pomfrey, darling. Does your head hurt?"

"Yes—um—where am I, Madam Pomfrey?"

"In the Hospital Wing in Hogwarts, darling. Now please, lay down. I shall give something for the headache. Try to sleep if you can."

"But—Madam Pomfrey?" Hermione attempted to shout, but she sounded very weak.

"Yes, darling?"

"What—what am I doing here?"

"You and your friends—you made an explosion of some sort, I believe. You were not really injured, however. Rather shocked. The redheaded one has already woke up as well. You don't need to worry. Now, drink this."

Hermione obeyed reluctantly, and soon, she was asleep again.

* * *

It was two days later when Ron and Hermione were allowed to get up. They were both sitting next to Harry's bed; for some reason, he needed more time to recover.

They were discussing all that had happened. Hermione, of course, had a theory. Ron, on the other hand, refused to accept it, and so they were bickering as usual. That was, until Harry noticed the calendar hanging on the wall. According to it, the current date was July 17, 1976.

Hermione wasn't surprised at all. Her only comment was, "See, Ron? It fits!"

"Yeah, whatever..."

"Oh come on, don't be so stubborn! It's the only explanation! We must have traveled back in time! Look at Pomfrey! If it isn't the way I think it is, then why does she look so young? And why doesn't she recognize us? It's the only way it makes sense."

"Maybe to you!" Ron snapped, 'because for me, this whole travel-back-in-time stuff doesn't make sense AT ALL!"

"Ron, please stop yelling. Harry's not feeling well, if you haven't noticed!" Now it was Hermione's turn to sound irritated.

"Sorry, Harry—anyway, the calendar doesn't prove anything. It could just have been left there because someone forgot to take it down. Or maybe Pomfrey likes the picture!" Ron didn't calm down. It was clear that the whole situation made him nervous. His reactions were similar to those of a little boy closing his eyes, so as not to see a displeasing sight. He refused to acknowledge the truth, hoping that as long as he stayed in denial, there was a chance that everything would somehow sort itself out.

"Oh Ron, please—that's just pathetic. I mean, look—let me just make it clear. First, we were in Percy's room and something went wrong with the _Pastorale_ charm, right? And it happened when Harry wanted to see his parents when they were our age, right? And next, we found ourselves with a twenty-year-younger Madam Pomfrey with a calendar from 1976! That would be the year when your parents entered their sixth year, wouldn't it, Harry? Honestly Ron, if you see any better explanation, then please, enlighten me. I will be happy to hear it!"

Ron glared at Hermione and remained silent. Harry shrunk in his bed, hid his head in his hands and spoke quietly.

"Look guys—I'm really sorry—I didn't mean to do it—I know it's all my fault..." His voice trailed off, while Hermione looked at him with a mixture of anger and concern in her eyes. She opened and closed her mouth few times before she spoke with a low, angry voice.

"Now you listen to me, Harry Potter! I don't want to hear this crap EVER again! Don't you DARE blame yourself for this! Do you think we all don't know what you are doing to yourself? You indulge in self-pity, blame yourself for Sirius' death and now for that as well—but you know what I think? I think that the only people to blame are Voldemort and his goddamn Death Eaters. Not you! Not Dumbledore! We all, including you, do our best! And it's not like you've sent use here on purpose! It was a mistake! Something went wrong with the charm! It happens sometimes, you know! And anyway..." Hermione paused for a while and took a deep breath. "I'm sure they will send us back home as soon as you are all right."

The coughing sound from the door made the three teenagers' heads turn. They stared for a moment at Albus Dumbledore, who stood at the doorway watching them with thoughtful expression.

Finally, the headmaster spoke.

"I'm afraid, that I have overheard part of your conversation. It does explain a lot. I am truly sorry to disappoint you, young mister," Dumbledore nodded in the direction of Ron, who just looked at him blankly, "but your friends are right. We indeed are in the year 1976 now."

Saying that, the old wizard conjured a chair and sat next to Harry's bed.

"I believe you already know me. I didn't have the pleasure of meeting you, however. Please, tell me what your names are."

"I'm Hermione Granger, sir." Hermione answered, still staring at Dumbledore. Having an interesting time-travel theory was one thing, knowing that the theory is true was something totally different. Up until then, she had considered their situation as some abstract problem, not really affecting them personally, but the serious expression on the Dumbledore's face suddenly brought her to the realization of all the possible consequences of what had happened.

"I'm Ron Weasley," Ron added, looking pale and frightened. "And this is Harry Potter," he added, pointing at Harry.

"Yes..." Dumbledore said with a hint of the usual twinkle in his eyes. "I was sure, that your resemblance to James Potter couldn't be an accident—you must be his very close relative, am I mistaken?"

"No, sir," Harry's voice was so weak now, that he was barely audible. "I'm his son."

"And you must the son of Arthur Weasley then?" Dumbledore asked looking at Ron, who nodded briefly. The old wizard looked at Hermione then for a while, searching his mind for any Grangers, probably.

"I am Muggle-born, sir," Hermione said, before the headmaster could ask her any question.

"I see..." the man smiled briefly. "I hope you understand gravity of your situation. The Ministry of Magic has to be informed about your presence here. However, I think it might be easier for you to tell everything to me first. Maybe we will find a way to send you back sooner."

"We come from the year 1996, sir." Hermione started and then she told everything, trying to find a way to explain what happened without revealing too much of the future. She couldn't avoid mentioning the fact that Harry's parents were dead and that he was important for some reason. After she was finished, Dumbledore gaze wandered between three of them for a while, until it settled on Harry.

"Thank you, Miss Granger. I must be very fond of you Mr. Potter, if I decided to make this sort of present for your birthday. And you would have to be a very, very powerful wizard, if you had managed to cause this sort occurrence. I do not think that is the case, however. The _Pastorale_ charm can be risky, if necessary precautions are not taken. Although I cannot remember anyone who actually used it with such a result.

"Anyway, we need to make some arrangements for your stay here. You are studying at Hogwarts, I assume?"

"Yes, sir."

"Good. I believe that the Ministry will agree that our school is the best place for you to stay right now—it's quite deserted in the summer and the fewer people you meet, the better."

* * *

After the conversation in the hospital wing, Dumbledore indeed took care of everything. They were placed in one of the guests' apartments and given back their wands and some robes to wear, as they didn't have enough of their own clothes.

The very next day, a group of Ministry wizards arrived and questioned them thoroughly. After that, they reassured the trio that they shouldn't be worried, and that certainly a way to transport them back to their time would be found very soon.

The next day, two witches arrived with a lot of strange equipment and prepared for the first attempt at sending Harry, Ron and Hermione forward in time. The attempt failed, however, which didn't surprise Dumbledore.

Ron suggested using a time-turner, but Hermione explained that it shouldn't be used to travel to far, because it was easily getting unstable and the effects could be terrible, including throwing someone entirely out of time, whatever that meant.

Two days later, Harry was allowed to leave the hospital wing. They had few days which they spent not seeing anyone but each other.

Dumbledore let them use school brooms and Quidditch equipment, so Harry and Ron were flying most of the time, while Hermione buried herself in different books connected with time-traveling. Usually she told the boys about anything interesting that she had found in the evenings.

One thing that they were strictly forbidden to do was to leave Hogwarts' grounds, and they were especially reminded not to go anywhere near Hogsmeade. Not that they minded, as didn't have any money to spend in the shops or at the Three Broomsticks.

After few more days, the Ministry wizards came again. Harry, Ron and Hermione were given some potion, which resulted only in strange sensation in the stomach and nothing else.

Apart from the visits of Ministry wizards, they were rather alone and soon got bored, as they didn't really have much to do. They asked Dumbledore for permission to use their wands despite the fact that they were underage, but he refused and suggested that if they didn't know how to spend their free time, they could always make use of the library.

Hermione talked Harry into doing some more reading about Occlumency and even Ron skipped through few textbooks, testimony of how utterly bored they were.

Probably the worst thing about the whole situation was the fact that they weren't allowed to talk with Hagrid. The Hogwarts gamekeeper was informed that there were some guests in the castle and was advised to keep away from them. Yearning for some company, they cast longing glances in the direction of their former (or future, depending on the point of view) friend.

The feeling of dullness was even increased by the fact that there was really nothing they could do to change their situation. The young Gryffindors wanted some action, some adventure and were demanded to be patient and wait instead. Dumbledore told them with a sad smile that it was in fact a big favor from the current Minister of Magic that they were allowed to stay in Hogwarts and were not closed off somewhere in isolation.

They slowly became pessimistic about their soon-to-happen return home. Every time a new charm didn't work they were more and more disappointed, while Dumbledore was more and more intrigued.

A month or so has passed, when Dumbledore called them to his office.

They didn't even bother to hurry, being by now very skeptical about anything that Ministry or Dumbledore could come up with.

To their surprise however, instead of the usual group of wizards, there was only Dumbledore and one stern looking old lady in the room. She smiled a little at the trio, then turned to Dumbledore and asked,

"Shall I speak, or maybe you would like to do it yourself, Albus?"

Headmaster's face was grim when he replied.

"Let me explain the situation first. I'm sure that you are aware that various methods of sending you back to your proper time have failed. The Ministry experts have came to the conclusion, which I fully agree with, that there must be some spell active back in your time, which disables your return. In other words, something or someone we can't reach is the reason for your current position. That means, I'm afraid, that we cannot say when the return will be possible. I discussed the matter with many members of the Ministry of Magic, including the Minister himself, and we have decided that keeping you in isolation is quite pointless and even cruel, as there is a risk of you spending the rest of your life in this time."

Harry, Ron and Hermione sat motionlessly in the silence that followed the headmaster's words. They all looked terrified and paled visibly.

Seeing their emotions, Dumbledore made a reassuring gesture, but it looked little fake. "Please, I am not going to say that everything will be all right, but you shouldn't give up hope. This charm that keeps you here may wear off after some time and you shouldn't forget, that your families and other wizards from your time are probably trying to get you back as well. The chances of you staying here are in fact quite small. Still, we think that it would be terrible loss of time, if you weren't given the opportunity to continue your education. I think that you should explain everything that comes now, Miranda."

The lady smiled gently and began to talk in somewhat pompous manner. "My name is Miranda Goshawk, I assume that you might have heard of me—I'm the author of the _Standard Book of Spells_ series." She paused as if waiting for reaction, but as none came, apart from a short 'Ah, yes!' from Hermione, she resumed her speech.

"I'm also the head of the O.W.L. Examination Board. Although I'm pretty sure that you remember your O.W.L. results, we cannot simply take your word on what they were. And that means that you will have to take the exams again."

"But—but we have only two weeks left till the beginning of the school year! How are we supposed to prepare?" Hermione asked incredulously.

"God, Hermione!" Ron snorted, "As if it was the biggest of your problems!"

"You shouldn't worry about that." Miranda Goshawk said. "We are aware of this fact and examinations will be simplified a little. I'm sure you will do just as well as you did the previous time."

* * *

Compared to the previous month, the remaining two weeks of holidays were so busy that none of the trio had any spare time left. Hermione used every occasion to study, but Harry and Ron only laughed at her.

If the exams were simplified, none of them noticed. Luckily, they did remember quite a lot. In fact, Hermione has actually managed to truly impress the examiners, as she received O for her first three exams (DADA, Transfiguration and Arithmancy). She continued in a similar fashion. Ron and Harry also did pretty well, considering the circumstances. It helped a lot, especially during the practice exams, that they didn't really care about the results and were not so stressed at all.

Apart from O.W.L.s, they also had other things on their minds. The Ministry of Magic had obtained for them all that they considered necessary, which included everything that they needed for school, some everyday clothes and a small amount of money they were to receive every month. They also made up a cover story for them.

They were supposed to be the siblings (Ron and Hermione as a twins and Harry a year younger than them) educated up until then at home by their mother. Their mother had died, however, and so they were invited to Hogwarts.

In order to make the story more believable and to hide their real identities, they had also their appearances changed a little bit. They all had their hair dyed to blond. Ron and Harry only laughed at each other, feeling ridiculous. Hermione, on the other hand, looked stunning with her new hairstyle. Her hair wasn't bushy anymore, but fell in gentle, golden waves to the middle of her back.

The first of September came in almost no time.


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: **Ugh, I own nothing.

**Summary:** Harry travels back in time and join his parents in their sixth year at Hogwarts. Not as stupid as it sound (or at least I hope so). OotP spoilers!

**Author note: **Yep, another edited chapter. I'm eternaly grateful to Aln-Mai:)

**Chapter 4**

Harry, Ron and Hermione were standing next to the staff table in the Great Hall. They felt the same nervousness that every student felt when transferred to a new school (although they weren't, in truth).

They had spent last night in front of the fireplace in their apartment, discussing everything that had happened. Hermione cried, for the first time since their adventure had started. Ron and Harry needed more than one hour to soothe her as she threw out all the tension she had felt for the past six weeks. Between the sobs she told them that she couldn't stop thinking about her parents and how they surely missed her.

Ron didn't even want to think about what his family must have been going through. And Harry...

Harry just sat on the coach and stared into the fire. He was sorry, really sorry for his friends, but he couldn't help nervous excitement somewhere deep inside. His parents...Sirius...he knew that he should want to go back, but instead he just waited anxiously for the next day, hoping that this strange dream wouldn't end too soon.

They talked for more than five hours. They didn't realize how much this conversation meant to them, but the fact that they were there for each other really comforted them.

Dumbledore found them in the morning, asleep together on the sofa, looking calmer and more relaxed than they had in the days since their arrival.

However, now the peaceful feeling was gone and they watched students filling the Great Hall, holding each others' hands to add themselves some encouragement.

Harry was getting more and more impatient. He stared at every new student that appeared with growing anxiety, until finally Lily Evans entered, chatting with a short, round-faced girl. His gaze transfixed on his mother while she talked cheerfully, smiled and sat down at the Gryffindor table.

"Harry?" Hermione whispered to his ear. "Doesn't the girl that your mum is talking to remind you of someone?" Harry hadn't really paid any attention to the girl Hermione was referring to, but when he looked at her, he had to agree that she looked somewhat familiar.

"I think it's Neville's mother," Ron said darkly, and Harry looked at two happy girls with a sudden realization of the terrible fate awaiting them in the future. One dead and one leading a sad excuse of a life on the closed ward at St. Mungo's...

Suddenly Dumbledore stood up and raised his hand. The Great Hall fell silent.

"Welcome to a new school year. Let the Sorting begin," the headmaster announced.

Soon, the large group of first-years was herded into the Great Hall by twenty-year-younger Professor McGonagall. The Sorting started with a usual song. About half of the children had been placed in their proper house when the main doors opened abruptly and four boys made a late entrance.

Harry gasped as he recognized the Marauders immediately. They seemed totally unperturbed by being late, and walked casually to the Gryffindor table with smug smiles on their faces.

Quite a lot of heads turned to watch young wizards, mostly with some kind of awe, while Professor McGonagall's lips turned into the typical, thin line as she glared at four Gryffindors. After reaching the table, Sirius immediately started a conversation with some girls and James laughed at his best friend.

Harry stared at his father and godfather with mixed emotions. He certainly was happy to see them, but their behavior was too similar to what he has seen in Snape's Pensieve. Involuntarily, he glanced at the Slytherin table and noticed his future Potions Master glaring at the Gryffindor table with a scowl.

Hermione squeezed his hand reassuringly.

Finally, the Sorting was over and Dumbledore stood up again and cleared his throat.

"I have a pleasure of introducing three more students this year. Let me present Hermione, Ron and Harry Bradley, who will all start their sixth year." There was mild applause and some whispers, as Hermione advanced to the stool in the middle.

As soon as she put the hat on, it screamed "GRYFFINDOR!" This repeated with Harry and Ron.

The trio went to their table and noticed other sixth-years beckoning them to come and making them some space to sit. As they were approaching, Sirius slowly scanned Hermione. His gaze traveled from her head to her feet as if he was assessing her and finally a handsome grin appeared on his face as he stood up.

"Welcome to the noble house of Gryffindor," he said pompously, with an exaggerated bow. "My name is Sirius Black."

"Hermione Bradley," replied Hermione and offered her hand. Sirius took it, but instead of shaking it, he kissed it loudly with another bow. He straightened and murmured "enchanted" with a mischievous expression. Hermione wasn't sure whether he was trying to charm her or to ridicule her.

Ron rolled his eyes and stretched his hand, mumbling "Ron Bradley." Sirius shook it briefly, but his attention was on Hermione the whole time.

After greeting Harry in the same manner, Sirius continued to play the role of the host.

"This," he announced, pointing at James, "is James Potter, Captain of our Quidditch team and the not-so-secret love of half of the Hogwarts female population." Someone snorted and Harry was pretty sure it was his mother.

James shot her an unhappy look, only to shrug and run his hand through his hair a moment later. He turned to the new students and said with a dismissing gesture in the direction of Sirius, "Don't pay attention to him. He just recently discovered that he has an artistic talent—good actor—but an even better painter..." James and Sirius both smirked viciously and Sirius was about to add something when a laugh from somewhere in the Great Hall interrupted them. Harry, Ron and Hermione turned and saw something big and colorful floating above the Slytherin table. Harry stared for a while, until a sudden comprehension hit him. It was Snape! His head looked like a balloon with a giant hooked nose. His hair was enchanted to change colors and something that looked like large drops of paint was falling from it every now and then.

Teachers rushed to the Slytherin table, all with their wands out. At the same moment, Lily Evans stood up and glared furiously at the Marauders.

"You're going too far." Her voice was shaking with anger. "You will have a year-long detention for that!"

"Ah, ah, Evans..." Sirius' smirk changed into an innocent look. "Honestly, I don't understand—you think it's us who did this—childish prank?"

Lily didn't answer and Sirius went on, his voice cold.

"Well—you might be right—but please, you surely understand that we can't have this—ahem—_git_, offending our fellow students. Don't you agree?"

"I told you!" Lily shouted, outraged. "I told you that I DON'T want YOU to defend me in any way! I can take care of myself!"

"I'm sure you can, Evans..." Sirius started, but James broke in, his cheeks flushed, his temper getting better of him.

"Listen, Evans, if you think that I will let Snivellus, or anybody for that matter, call YOU the worst possible names and treat you the way he does, than you are very wrong!" his voice trembled a little as he looked soberly at the girl in front of him. "I don't know why you hate me so much, but it doesn't change the fact that..." his voice trailed off as if he said too much and suddenly he turned on his heel and stormed out of the Great Hall.

"Just in time, Prongs," murmured Sirius under his breath, eyeing McGonagall, who was now approaching their table with a very angry expression. "Black, Potter—where is Potter?"

"He had to leave, professor—he is very fragile and he couldn't stand a sight of fellow student in such a distress..."

"Stop that crap immediately, Black. You go to my office NOW. You too, Pettigrew, Lupin. I just can't believe it..." she stalked into the entrance hall and three boys followed her.

Harry, who had so far observed the scene in front of him with wide eyes, looked around the Great Hall. Snape was nowhere to be seen; probably the teachers had taken care of him. People in the different tables were talking animatedly and looked either annoyed or amused. The official atmosphere of the welcoming feast was gone.

Harry, Ron and Hermione took their seats, uncertain what to do. Harry looked at his mother and noticed that she was still angry and seemed to be arguing over something with herself, as her mouth moved slightly. Harry felt an urge to comfort her and before he had a chance to think about this, he found himself saying the first words that came to his mind.

"Don't worry—it's not your fault..."

Lily raised her head and looked at him in surprise.

"I don't think it's my fault!" she snapped. Then as she realized who was she talking to, she looked at Harry apologetically.

"I'm sorry—Harry, right?" Harry nodded. "I shouldn't take it out on you—only they annoy me so much! They always make some sort of pranks on Snape and they tell me it is because of me—I just can't stand it! Is it so difficult to understand that I don't need them to protect me? Agh—sorry, I'm still angry..."

"I can see that," Harry said with a smile.

"Anyway, my name is Lily Evans..." she started with a shy smile, when suddenly, Dumbledore's voice broke into their conversation.

"I am really sorry, that the feast was—er—interrupted in such a manner. Please, continue your meal. I can assure you that this—unfortunate incident will not affect Mr. Snape's health."

There was some laughter at the words "unfortunate incident" and Lily scowled.

"They will get away with this, again! They should have been expelled a long time ago, but their grades are too good..." she mumbled angrily to herself and then turned back to Harry. "I hope you won't judge the school by what you've seen today—it's really great place. Anyway, where did you study before?"

After that, the conversation followed the typical route for people who were trying to get to know each other. Lily introduced the other Gryffindors: Alice Nesbit, future mother of an unhappy boy called Neville and her best friend; tall and graceful Lea Leafdrop; hyper, short-haired Heather Star, who happened to be a Gryffindor Chaser. There were some other girls, but Harry didn't manage to remember their names. As for boys, there were only five of them apart from Marauders: Limey Goodkid, who hadn't spoken even once throughout entire meal; the twins: Daniel & Damian Strawinski, both tall, tanned and blonde; Terence Torp, a short and clumsy boy, usually pranked by Slytherins, and Pat Parmesano, who came from Italy and declared that his father was the boss of Sicilian Gang.

Hermione explained that they had been home tutored thus far and that their mother had died that summer, so they had to go to Hogwarts. Everybody immediately started to express their condolences, while the trio tried to look genuinely sad. Hermione, who did most of the talking, was really doing a good job.

Finally, the feast came to an end, and after the usual speech from Dumbledore, they were dismissed to go to their common rooms.

* * *

Hermione looked around her dorm with a mixture of strange emotions and thoughts loading her mind. She was extremely tired, partly because she hadn't slept much last night, but mostly due to the fact that, for the first time in her life, she had to pay very close attention to every single word she said. 

It was so easy to make a mistake. When they were talking about teachers, she had almost slipped, saying some snide remark about her old Potions Master. When the topic was Quidditch, she had to kick Ron under the table when he was about to say something about Harry and him being on the team. Almost every subject seemed dangerous...she only hoped that they would manage...

_Ron and Harry will have good practice for their future job as Aurors_, she thought grimly.

At least they didn't have to pretend that they didn't know their way around Hogwarts. They told their new classmates, that they moved here right after their mother's funeral.

Now, she observed Lily, Alice and Lea as they unpacked their things, chatting. She had taken an immediate liking to Lily and Alice, although she was not so sure about Lea. There was something about her that reminded her distinctively of Pansy Parkinson, nothing about her looks though, as Lea was very pretty and graceful compared to Pansy.

Alice was rather shy and very similar to Neville in her behavior. She had a gentle way of speaking and a warm smile, which made Hermione feel somehow reassured. Lily, on the other hand, was really straightforward. She told Hermione on their way to Gryffindor common room that she would gladly help her in anything including schoolwork, and Hermione accepted her offer with a smile. From what she saw so far, she and Lily had the same over-achieving attitude toward learning and they were both prefects. Or at least, Hermione used to be one...

That was another thing that was going to be extremely difficult—pretending to be a worse student then she really was. It was necessary, however, as it would by highly suspicious if she knew more than people who were taught in one of the best wizarding schools in the world.

A sudden burst of laughter threw Hermione out of her thoughts. She looked at her roommates and asked, "Um, sorry, I wasn't listening. What happened?"

"Oh, you missed my story?" Lea glanced at her with a hint of disappointment, which was soon gone. "Well, I don't really mind telling it one more time—you know Heather, right? Well, she started dating a guy from Slytherin during the holidays and James went berserk. He was all about "you can't play well, if you are not sure which team you want to win". It was really funny..." Lea giggled. "It might be difficult for Heather score with Duncan being Slytherin keeper—she will get easily distracted..."

"Well, it works both ways, doesn't it?" Lily asked. "Duncan will probably be even more distracted anyway. I don't really see why Potter makes such a fuss over it..."

"Oh, Lily..." Lea's voice was playful. "Why are you always so irritated about anything James does? I mean, he's handsome, and popular, and talented, AND crazy about you—why don't you just give him a chance? He's got everything that a guy needs to have!"

"He is a conceited, big-headed show-off, who would probably get bored with me after a week, the same way his best friend does with every girl that he dates!"

Hermione snorted at that; she couldn't help being amused about how wrong Lily was. Lea looked taken aback.

"Well, I guess I should warn you, Hermione, that Sirius is the biggest playboy in this school. You've seen how he acted about you. He acts like that around every attractive girl that appears, so it's better that you don't think that he found you really special or anything. I know that it sounds harsh, but I've seen it way too many times. Better keep away from him," Lea said all that very quickly and without really looking at Hermione.

"And he isn't any different from Potter," Lily added. "I'll bet that he will invite you to sneak out for a date in Hogsmeade, boasting how he knows all the secret passageways in the castle..."

Hermione looked up at Lily, suddenly alarmed.

"Is there anything wrong?" the other girl asked.

"No..." Hermione replied nervously. "I just forgot about one thing—I need to tell something my brothers—I'll be back in a moment..."

Hermione stood up and left the room, all alarms in her head ringing... How could she forget about that? _He knows all the secret passageways in the castle!

* * *

_

James Potter was furious. The first day of school was a total disaster. It started pretty normally, meeting Remus and Peter on the train and discussing their holidays—typical, boring travel to Hogwarts. He left the compartment only for a while, to get them some snacks and of course he HAD TO walk right into Severus Snape telling Lily Evans that she should stay at home, because Hogwarts was not a place for Mudbloods.

What was he supposed to do, ignore the stupid git and let him taunt the girl he respected deeply? He wanted to hex him, but the bloody coward fled and James only shouted at him that he would be sorry for what he had said.

And so they came up with the prank. Stupid as it was, they didn't really have time to prepare anything subtler and anyway, that was not the point!

Evans, of course, didn't appreciate it, but he didn't expect her to. But he wasn't prepared for her being this enraged. And as if it was not bad enough, he had almost said aloud his feelings for her! Not that she didn't know, he had made it clear quite a few times, but he certainly didn't want everybody to hear how much he really cared.

And then McGonagall threatened him with getting kicked off the Quidditch team if he didn't start to behave.

They ended up with detention on Sunday, which meant that he would not only lose their last day of freedom (which he already had some plans for), but also miss his first Quidditch practice. And he was the Captain! He was RESPONSIBLE for how they played! But McGonagall wouldn't listen, of course.

And when they left her office, he bumped into Heather Star in the middle of snog-session with a Slytherin Beater. He knew that he shouldn't yell at her the way he did, but he was simply too angry to restrain himself.

He headed towards their dorm, his friends following him without a word. He opened the door with a kick and stopped abruptly at the sight of the two boys in the middle of unpacking. He glared at them.

"Can this day get any worse?!" he groaned loudly. Exactly at the same moment Sirius asked with dangerous voice, "What are you doing here?"

"We live here!" the taller of the two (what was his name...Ron?) replied.

"No way!" Sirius was furious as well. "This is OUR dorm—go to the other one!"

"Don't shout, Sirius!" Remus said, trying to make peace, as usual. "It's not their fault! Sorry for them..." he added, speaking to Ron and Harry. "It's just been a really bad day..."

"No, it's NOT just the bad day! We can't have them here, Moony, and you know perfectly well why not!" Sirius stopped in the middle of his tirade and stared at the doors, his mouth open.

James followed his gaze and saw the new girl, Hermione, standing at the doorway, looking nervous.

"Ever heard about knocking? What if we've been changing just now?" he asked angrily.

"You think I don't know what a guy looks like?" she snapped and then turned to her brothers. "Harry, Ron, we have to talk now! We are in trouble!"

James watched them leave, wondering what kind of trouble one can get into on the first day in a new school.

Ron and Harry left the room gladly.

"You came just in time, Hermione—nice beginning, isn't it? I can't believe it, they're throwing us out!" Ron said, but Hermione didn't pay attention to him.

"Ron, shut up, this is important!" she said impatiently, and Ron glared at her, but stopped talking nevertheless.

"We forgot about the Marauder's Map!" she said quietly, her voice deadly serious.

**Author's note:** Finally something's going on! I got bored with writing about all those preparations they were making in previous chapter, but I wanted this story to make sense, so couldn't just skip them :/

Anyway, I want to make some things clear, because I can't really do it in the story. I try to follow the canon as much as I can, so there will be no Lucius Malfoy, Bellatrix, Narcissa and Andromeda Black in this story, cause they are supposed to be older than the Marauders and so they are not at Hogwarts anymore. Same with Molly and Arthur. I have put Neville's mum in, as her age is not specified anywhere. I also gave her the family name Nesbit. It doesn't appear in the books, I think and I guess I took it from some other fanfiction I've read... I decided not to put Frank in, let's say he is two years older than his future wife, or something like that.

The last thing: it would be logical that Harry, Ron and Hermione had their names changed as well, but it would be difficult to write and confusing to read, so I left them with their real names. Hope it doesn't bother anyone.

And, by the way, THANKS FOR REVIEWS!


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer:** The usual stuff, you know...

**Author note:** Thanks for all the reviews and comments. I corrected the spelling mistakes, which Kekelina pointed out and changed Alice's surname to Nesbit (thanks to songbreeze about that). I really appreciate all constructive criticism and if you see some stupid language mistakes I made please, let me know... It is my first attempt to write anything like that and in English moreover, so I suppose I make a lot of them...

And one last thing – my studies are starting right now, so I will have a lot on my head and I won't be able to update very often – I will try to add new chapter at least once a week, but I'm not sure if I'll manage. Right, on with the story, then...

**Author note:** Huge thanks for Aln-Mai for editing.

**Chapter 5**

Ron and Harry stared at Hermione blankly, her last statement making it's slow way inside their brains, until the comprehension of what exactly she was talking about dawned on them both. Ron opened and shut his mouth few times, before he finally managed to say the only thing that came to his mind.

"Shit."

"Yes, indeed. We need to think of something now," Hermione replied.

"I don't think it's good idea to talk here—let's go somewhere more private," Harry suggested, trying to remain calm. "The Room of Requirement?"

It was a good choice, as it was probably the only place in the entire castle apart from the Chamber of Secrets not mentioned on the Marauder's Map. The more time they spent there, the less they risked the Marauders accidentally noticing their real names on the Map—that is, assuming that they were going to use it tonight, which wasn't terribly likely to happen.

They headed there, grateful that none of the other Gryffindor sixth-years were in the Common Room to inquire where they were going. In a very short time they arrived and the doors appeared in front them.

The inside of the room surprised them a little. They subconsciously expected the classroom-like, cozy chamber, which The Room of Requirements turned into every time they came for the DA meetings last year. Instead, they found themselves in a large room, absolutely empty apart from three chairs and a small table in the middle. The walls glowed with a white-blue, dim light.

"Oh..." said Hermione, looking around. "That's cool—I wouldn't have thought of it myself."

"You wouldn't have thought of what?" Ron demanded.

"We needed a place to talk, a place where no one can overhear us. So it is probably some sort of protective charm that's making the walls glow like this."

"It looks creepy..." Ron muttered. "Like an interrogation room."

"No," Harry objected. " I think it is like this so nobody can sneak in and eavesdrop. We can see everyone, since there is literally nothing to hide behind here."

"Right, um—maybe we will just sit and decide what to do about the Map, instead of discussing how intelligent this room is." Hermione said, and moved towards the chairs.

The boys followed her and took their seats. Some tea and biscuits appeared on the table.

"So, what should we do?" Hermione asked, looking at her friends expectantly.

"We can't let them keep it, that's for sure. Maybe we can just steal it," Ron said thoughtfully. "I mean, it's not like it's a decent thing to do, but we don't have much choice, do we?" he added, seeing the horrified expression on Hermione's face.

"I don't know—it feels wrong, to just steal it like that—I think we'd better go to Dumbledore," she answered uncertainly.

"No," said Harry. "We can't do that. We know that in our times he has no idea that the Map even exists!"

"You don't know that for sure, Harry," Hermione pointed out. "Maybe he just pretends he doesn't know."

"Maybe—and maybe not. Anyway, I agree with Ron, we had better get it ourselves. We need it, especially now. And I don't think it makes any difference to my father whether we take it or Dumbledore does. Only if we do it, then there is a chance that they will think they lost it or something—it would be less suspicious than Dumbledore suddenly discovering one of their most guarded secrets."

"OK, let's say I agree with you for a second," Hermione said, folding her arms on her chest. "How exactly do you want to steal it? You don't even know where they keep it!"

"Well, what we really need..." said Harry slowly, with a frown on his forehead. "What we really need is some time alone, to search our dorm. I'm sure they keep it there, just like we did—we need to have time when we are absolutely sure that they won't come in the middle of me or Ron going through their trunks..."

"No, that would be really bad," Ron said. "Sorry to say that, Harry, but your father and Sirius—they aren't exactly very nice..."

"No, they aren't..." Harry agreed, and pondered telling his friends about what he had seen in Snape's Pensieve. He had promised not to, but it wasn't really important anymore, as they were probably about to see some similar events. Ron didn't seem to notice his doubt and he soon came up with another suggestion.

"Maybe we can do it next full moon? They would be out..."

"No, that's pointless, they will take map with them for sure," Hermione replied.

"Next Hogsmeade visit?"

"No, that's in six weeks, Ron!"

"OK—then maybe we will just not go for our classes one day..."

"They will know that we took it, then. Really, we should go to Dumbledore."

"Right, so how about this: you pretend that you're cursed by a tickling charm, the Marauders try to help you and are distracted—to make it more real, we could actually really put you under a tickling charm, don't you think, Harry?" Ron smiled mischievously and took his wand out, trying to look threatening.

"Ron! We are here to discuss something important!" Hermione shouted with a small hint of annoyance in her voice. She tried to remain serious, but seeing his expression she snorted, and then started giggling. Ron grinned and said with a mock concern, "Well, you know, I don't think you really need the tickling charm after all..."

Harry observed those two bickering as usually. Ron came up with more and more ridiculous ideas of how to steal the Map and soon they were all laughing, for the first time that day. It was good thing, to forget about all their troubles for a while.

They spent rest of the evening in the room, not missing the world outside at all.

* * *

The Marauders watched the two new boys and their sister leave their dorm, and immediately after the doors shut, Remus started to speak, sounding rather cold.

"Sirius, could you explain what do you think you are doing?"

"Don't you think it's rather obvious, Moony?"

"You can't throw them out like that, even if it might be inconvenient to have to share the room..."

"Inconvenient—you will end up as a teacher, Moony—you're already start to speak like one..." James interjected with a snort.

"I don't see any sane headmaster employing me—but back to what I was saying, Sirius. The way you are—it's worse then Snivelly sometimes, don't you see that? First day in a new school and you shout at them like that..."

"Don't you dare compare me with him." Sirius' voice was calm, but his eyes flashed dangerously. He folded his arms and sat on his bed. "Anyway, the whole argument is pointless—I changed my mind."

"You changed your mind?" James asked incredulously. "That's rare—Sirius Black changing his mind—unless—it's the Hermione girl, Padfoot?" The knowing look appeared on his face, followed by a smirk as Sirius straightened up and glared at his best friend, obviously annoyed.

"NO, it's NOT the Hermione girl. I put that second thought to the matter, if you need to know. We can't throw them out, because McGonagall wouldn't let us and we're in enough trouble already. So I changed my mind. Simple," Sirius explained, as if he was talking to a child. He took a breath and continued in a quiet voice, looking accusingly at James. "You think I would want to endanger my FRIEND, because of some stupid blonde girl? Even if this friend thinks that I'm worse than Slytherin—I did what I did for a reason..." His voice sounded unusually bitter.

The two Marauders looked at each other uncertainly. James shifted uncomfortably, and then said, with guilty look on his face, "Look, Padfoot, I didn't want it to sound like that—I only noticed that you, well—you know—the way you acted around her during the feast..."

"Please, James, stop that—I just wanted some fun—she's not my type... " Sirius interrupted him with a scowl.

"Listen, I'm just trying to say I'm sorry—I guess we really had a bad day today after all..."

Sirius gave small smile and wanted to say something, but Remus was first.

"Yeah, I'm sorry too, Padfoot, sorry about what I told you—about being worse than Snape," he paused for a while. "But I still think you're being an arse to those new guys."

"That's settled then," Sirius said lightly. "I'm an arse. I just don't want them to discover who you are, Remus." He added more seriously, "I was worried. And I care a little bit more about you than about being polite to some jerks who don't even try to defend themselves. You don't know how they might react if they discover who you are. Well, I guess I can apologize, if you really think I should."

"We should all apologize," Peter said nervously. It was the first time he had spoken throughout the entire conversation. The other boys turned to him, surprised. "I mean, it would be better to make them think that we like them or something—so they would like us as well—and be less suspicious..."

"Maybe—guess, you're right, Wormtail," said James thoughtfully. "And it's not very likely that they will figure anything out soon. It took US half a year after all!"

* * *

It was past curfew when Harry, Ron and Hermione came back to the Gryffindor Tower. They didn't really come up with any plan, apart from the fact that they had decided not to go to Dumbledore just yet. Hermione was fuming about it, but boys convinced her to wait a little. She had to agree that the Map would be very useful for them now, when it was so crucial for them not to let anyone overhear some of their conversations.

They were all in a pretty good mood as well, as they had spent the rest of the evening in the Room of Requirement, joking and laughing about nothing in particular. The room had changed for them a bit, somehow sensing the change in their needs, and it produced a very big trampoline and some pillows, as if it could predict that they would indulge into massive pillow fight right away. Which they did, of course. The boys tickled Hermione and she laughed and then set a tickling charm on them as revenge.

They were all covered in feathers in the end and it took them some time to clean themselves. Hermione still felt quite giggly when they decided to come back.

When they entered the common room, they were surprised to see quite a huge amount of people awaiting them. There was Lily Evans, looking furious again, as well as Marauders, Alice and Lea, who seemed to be the only person in the room having a good time. They were in the middle of some heated argument, but they stopped it and stared at the three teenagers standing in the hole behind the portrait of Fat Lady.

Hermione blinked few times and chuckled, and not being able to restrain herself any longer, she started to laugh, although she really tried hard to fight it. Everyone present, apart from Ron and Harry, seemed startled by her reaction and finally she composed herself and tried to keep a straight face. Somehow the grave expressions of the people in front of her seemed extremely funny to her at that moment.

"Something happened?" she asked as seriously as she could.

"We were scared—we thought that something might have happened to you—you were gone for few hours and after those idiots behaved themselves the way they did, I was—I thought you might do something stupid—I don't know..." Lily Evans answered. She sounded uncertain, and soon Sirius broke in, looking quite relieved, although he tried not to show it.

"Evans thought that after the way you were—mistreated, you might decide to, erm, run away from Hogwarts." Harry, Ron and Hermione looked at him incredulously, and seeing that, Sirius smoothly added, "See, Evans? I told you we weren't that bad and there was nothing to worry about."

Lily only snorted in response. In fact, it seemed that she was a little bit disappointed to see the three new students not even a little unhappy about what she considered to a major misbehavior from the boys she hated. Hermione noticed that, and was about to say something when she heard Ron speaking in a very sarcastic voice.

"Oh, no, of course, it was simply _lovely_ to be thrown out of your dorm on the very first day in a new school. We felt really welcome after that..." he probably would have carried on like that little longer, if Remus hadn't broken in.

"Look, we all are really sorry about that. You are REALLY welcome and I mean it. And, despite what this idiot is saying, we were worried about you—not that you would run away or something, but, well, we looked for you—around the castle and couldn't find you anywhere."

Harry, Ron and Hermione exchanged significant looks. They were obviously trying to find them with the Marauder's Map and didn't see them on it. No wonder they had thought that they had left the school grounds. Harry broke the uncomfortable silence, trying to look as innocent as he could—he was a pathetic liar.

"Well, we went outside—for a walk, you know..." He was sure that if Marauders used the Map, then they knew it was a lie, but they couldn't openly say so, because then they would have to explain how they knew for sure. Hogwarts' grounds were huge, and they certainly didn't have enough time to search them thoroughly in the dark.

"And you are all right?" Lily demanded.

"Yes," Harry said, nodding.

"Well, there's one more thing then—McGonagall came and brought this for you." With that, she handed them a letter signed with Dumbledore's handwriting. Harry opened it and found a short note inside, informing them that the headmaster would like to see them.

"It's past curfew—we'd better go tomorrow..." he said, showing the note to Ron and Hermione. Lily, however, shook her head and told them that McGonagall insisted that it was urgent and they should go to the headmaster as soon as they could, which meant now. She offered to walk them to the headmaster's office, which was good idea, as she was a prefect and was allowed to be out past curfew.

And so they went.

* * *

Dumbledore watched the three students in front of him. He listened to their apologies for coming so late, and then offered them some lemon drops. They refused politely, and waited for him to inform them why he had demanded to see them.

"I would like to ask you how your first day of school went. Was it difficult?"

He observed them glancing at each other, as if to consult about what to say—typical behavior for teenagers, he mused, this need to act as a part of the group, never to do anything that your friends might consider wrong. Finally, the boy named Harry spoke up.

"We are all right, sir. It wasn't that bad..." The rest nodded in confirmation.

Dumbledore didn't really learn much from this, so asked as gently as he could, "If there is anything that you would like to tell me about—anything important, or anything that is worrying you—well, it's time to tell me about it now..."

He could tell from the way they shook their heads that it was not true, that there actually was something that bothered them, but he was sure that there was no point in asking; they didn't intend to tell him. So, instead of voicing more questions, he looked into the eyes of the boy who spoke and slowly started to reach inside his mind.

He was surprised to find very strong resistance and retreated immediately after he discovered that the boy was aware of his attempt to read his thoughts. He saw his expression to turn into the one of anger as he rose and clenched his fists.

"Professor, what are you doing? Keep away from my head!"

Two others students looked at him with surprise, but the face of the girl soon broke into smile.

"Harry, so the books I lent you helped! You can Occlude your mind! That's fantastic!"

Dumbledore was amazed both by the fact that the sixteen year-old boy actually knew what Occlumency was and had some skills in this area, and the brilliancy of the girl, who guessed what exactly had happened. Slowly, trying not to annoy the boy more then he already was, he started to apologize.

"I am sorry—I shouldn't have tried to read your mind, but I have strong impression that you are keeping something away from me. And in your situation, I would advise you to tell me everything." He knew, of course, that after the last event, the boy would be even more reluctant to share his problem, and indeed, he only glared at him furiously, before saying icily, "We've got nothing to tell you, Professor."

Dumbledore looked at the boy apologetically.

"Well, I guess I'll move on to the reason I summoned you, then. I received the letter concerning your education—the Hogwarts' governors are, of course, not aware of your real past, so they expressed their concern about your ability to cope with all the challenges of the N.E.W.T. level classes. They believe that your mother didn't put you under any pressure and therefore you might find the lessons too difficult and stressful. You must understand, this is highly unusual to let the students start the schooling later, the way you were allowed. And so, they decided that every teacher has to asses your capabilities during September and October and then make the final decision whether you should be allowed to take N.E.W.T. in the subjects they teach."

Hermione gasped and shouted, before she managed to control herself.

"But sir, we took our O.W.L.s! They know that we are not worse than any other student in the school!" Her lips were almost trembling, and it seemed pretty strange compared to the joyous outburst from a moment before, when she thought that Harry had managed to block his mind.

"I am aware of this, but they do not question your knowledge, only the fact that you are prepared to learn in the way which they think you are not accustomed to. I'm sure that it won't be any problem for you." He smiled reassuringly. Harry only glared at him and asked, "Is that all, Professor?"

Dumbledore nodded and examined the teenagers in front of him once more. It was clear that they were tired and under a lot of pressure, even though they didn't want to admit it.

"We'll be off, then. Good night," He still sounded cold, and didn't wait for Dumbledore to respond. The others mumbled "good night" as well and left the room.

* * *

Throughout the rest of the evening, the Marauders started to act around Harry and Ron in a pretty annoying way. They tried to chat with them in what was supposed to be natural manner, but turned out so fake that Harry almost told them to just shut up and stop pretending that they had suddenly started to like them.

In fact, Harry suspected it must have been quite the opposite. It was clear that although Harry and Ron didn't mean it that way, the fact that they seemed not to be affected at all by the throwing-out-of-the-dorm attempt somehow offended Marauders in their pride of the Almighty Kings of Gryffindor and Hogwarts.

Harry wasn't bothered that much about it. He was tired and after the joyous feeling from earlier had faded, he suddenly realized that he was also disappointed. He hoped deep inside that his father and godfather would prove themselves different from the arrogant-bully image from the Snape's Pensieve, but obviously he had hoped for too much.

Lily, on the other hand, seemed rather impressed and told them before going to bed that she was happy that they took her advice to ignore "those insufferable brats" as she had put it. She then wished them good night and headed to the girls' dormitories, Hermione with her.

Harry tried to sleep, wondering how long he would be able live like this. It was enough to look at usually coolheaded Hermione and her almost hysterical reaction today, when she heard all that Dumbledore told them about the fact that they can be thrown out of their classes—he felt drained by the way his emotions altered from joy to anger and disappointment all the time. He felt a little ashamed by his own reactions, as well. When Sirius had attacked them, he did nothing really to defend himself and later, when Dumbledore tried to read his thoughts, he had almost hit the old man. And the headmaster meant no harm; after all, he was only worried. They could keep assuring him that they were all right, but in fact, he couldn't help but wonder how long they would manage to go on like this.


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: **The usual stuff, you know...

**Author note: **I discovered that some people don't now what is the problem with Marauders Map. So, here comes the explanation: on the Map you are able to see the name of every person in the castle, which means that Marauders may see what are the real names of Harry, Ron and Hermione. That would be disastrous, as they have to hide their real identity in order to stay in Hogwarts and to avoid accidentally revealing anything about the future. I hope everything is clear now. Have fun

And as usually: thanks for all reviews and comments, I just love getting them.

**Author note 2:**Thanks for editing to Aln-Mai.

**Chapter 6**

Quite a lot of sixth-year Gryffindors came down for breakfast early next morning, although each of them for a different reason.

Lily was simply a morning person; she never slept long and to other girls" dismay, she expected them to do the same. She woke them up with loud and cheerful singing and dragged them mercilessly down to breakfast with her. Hermione suspected that she simply didn't want to eat breakfast alone.

Harry and Ron wanted to keep as close to Marauders as they could, in order to ensure that the four mischief-makers didn't use the Map.

And Marauders had to be in McGonagall's office punctually at 8:30, so they couldn't sleep as long as they would normally do on Sunday. They were supposed to have a day-long detention.

The detention turned out to be the blessing, because it meant that for the whole day the dormitory would be empty. It was an occasion which Harry, Ron and Hermione couldn't miss. They were waiting anxiously for 8:30 to come, so they could start their search as soon as they were sure that it was safe.

It wasn't as easy as they had hoped it would be, though. It seemed that Lily wanted to make up for the not-so-warm welcome that the new students had received the day before, staying close to them and trying to get them into a nice, merry conversation. She kept talking about random things concerning the school such as teachers, the differences between houses, Hagrid, Dumbledore and his strange habits, Filch (she didn't mention Mrs. Norris, which was very promising) and all sorts of other stuff.

Normally they would have probably found it interesting to learn what was different in the past at Hogwarts. This time, however, they just wanted to end the conversation as fast as they could and go to the dormitory, before it was too late. The longer they waited, the less time they had for their search.

Harry tried to come up with a way to get rid of his mother, but it was difficult, mainly because he really enjoyed her company and she was very determined to make them feel better. He begged Hermione inwardly to think of something—she was the intelligent one, wasn't she?

Lily could see their anxiety, but she interpreted it her own way. Touching Harry lightly on his shoulder, she told him with a slight smile, "Don't worry, it's not your fault."

Harry smiled back, remembering that these were his own words which he had used when he had tried to comfort her yesterday.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"Well, I can see you feel terrible after yesterday, but you shouldn't worry; Potter and Black are just stupid jerks. They think the school belongs to them..."

"Oh, we aren't worried about that at all," Hermione said with a dismissive shrug. "Actually—um, it's something different. You see, it's about what Dumbledore told us yesterday... He said that teachers can throw us out of their N.E.W.T. class if we don't do well enough..."

"What?" Lily asked incredulously. "But that's ridiculous—what is the point of that?"

"They think we will be under too much pressure compared with what we are used to," Hermione said with a grimace. "Anyway, we wanted to study a little further ahead—you know, just to make sure that everything goes well..."

Harry and Ron nodded, pretending that the story was nothing new for them and that they indeed intended to spend last day of holidays studying.

"Oh!" Lily exclaimed. "I can help you, if you want. I'm doing pretty well in some subjects. Which N.E.W.T.s are you taking?"

"Harry and Ron want to be Aurors, so they're taking Defense Against the Dark Arts, Potions, Transfiguration and Charms. And they're also taking Care of Magical Creatures. And I'm taking all that plus Arithmancy, Ancient Runes and Astronomy."

"That's a lot..." Lily said, a little startled. "So—if you'd like me to, I can help you with Charms—and the rest as well, apart from Potions..."

Hermione looked at the boys pleadingly, signaling that she had run out of ideas. Harry glanced at Lily and then turned to Hermione.

"You know what? I don't really feel like studying today—you guys go and I'll stay here and do something else. A game of chess, Lily?" he offered turning to his mother. She smiled and nodded in agreement.

"OK—that is, if Ron and Hermione don't need my help..." She added, casting a concerned look at the other two. Ron and Hermione shook their heads and murmured some thanks before heading off, on their way to the boys dormitory. Harry and Lily started the game.

While they played, Harry observed his mother discreetly. She was quite good-looking, although not the classical beauty. It was more about the way that every single emotion she felt was clearly visible in her eyes. She had pale skin with very few freckles on her nose and when she smiled, it simply looked sweet. Harry wasn't surprised at all that his father was crazy about this woman.

He enjoyed playing with her. She obviously didn't have much experience playing wizard's chess, but from time to time she came up with a witty, original move which made the game quite interesting. Harry felt really grateful for all those times when he played with Ron. Although he was no match for his best friend, he still had learned a lot and felt very proud when Lily complimented him on his skills.

"Oh no, Ron is much better then I am," he replied modestly.

It was surprising how easily the ice broke between them. Lily was very easygoing and Harry listened attentively to everything she said. Soon they were chatting about many different things. Lily told Harry that she envied him for his wonderful siblings and started to recall different and often funny memories about her sister, Petunia. The cold relation she had with her sister worried her, but there was nothing she could do—Petunia rarely replied to her letters and refused to spend any time with her during the holidays.

It was quite unusual, how their conversation turned out to be so personal. They had known each other only for day and a half! Maybe it was simply because Lily liked to talk and Harry was eager to listen and learn as much as he could about his mother.

After an hour and three more games, Alice and Heather came downstairs from the dormitory. Lily beckoned the girls to sit with them. Some of the Gryffindor boys came down as well, and the large group of sixth year students decided to leave the common room.

It was a perfect opportunity for Harry to go and check on his friends. He started to feel anxious about what was taking them so much time. After all, one didn't need an hour to look through four trunks—the Map either was there or it wasn't, and with or without it, they should have been downstairs by now.

* * *

Harry's curiosity was gone as soon as he reached the dorm. The knowing smirk appeared on his face when he saw a red-faced, furious Hermione shouting at an equally red-faced Ron. 

"Honestly, Ron, I am not your little sister, to get angry whenever a boy notices me!" she continued, oblivious to the fact that Harry had entered the room.

"I don't think you're my little..." Ron started to reply, but Harry didn't let him finish and broke in, still smirking.

"One leaves you two alone for five minutes and you're already at each other's throats?"

Both of his friends turned abruptly and both blushed even harder than they did before.

"Harry, we were just..." Hermione started to explain, but Harry only waved his hand and interjected smugly, "Acting the way you usually do. I know, I'm used to it by now."

"Yeah, sort of," Ron mumbled, slowly calming down.

"So?" Harry demanded. "Did you find the Map?"

"No, we didn't," Hermione answered seriously. "But we couldn't open James' trunk; it's probably charmed to recognize its owner or something like that..."

"We thought that maybe you could open it, since you're his son," Ron added. "Some families have trunks working for all the family members. Maybe that's the case..."

Harry nodded and headed towards his father's bed. He sat there and put his hand on the lock. He felt the strange energy running between him and the trunk, and it immediately unlocked with a loud crack.

He raised the lid cautiously, feeling an overwhelming curiosity.

Everything inside was mixed together—clothes and books and other stuff, with a broom catalog laying on top of black school robes and a bag of sweets wrapped in red-gold socks with five toes. Harry chuckled and started to take each thing out one by one, examining it and then placing it gently on the bed next to him. Ron and Hermione observed him from the other end of the room without a word as he slid his hand through the familiar material of the Invisibility Cloak or touched the delicate material of a shirt. James clothes, although kept untidily, were ones of good quality, same as every other thing he possessed.

A sudden movement caught Harry's eyes in the middle of this little ritual he was having. It was a photo. He picked it up and stared at it, unable to move. There was a little bit younger James there with an older man, who obviously had to be his father. He stood behind the boy, his hands resting on the other's arms, with an expression of pride and fondness, while James fidgeted and seemed to be a little uncomfortable.

After a long while, Harry carefully laid the photo on the bed, next to the pile of James' stuff. He resumed his search, and after taking almost everything out from the trunk, he finally found a familiar piece of parchment. He smiled to himself and turned around to his friends.

"I think I found it!" he announced, taking out his wand and whispering, "I solemnly swear I am up to no good."

Immediately images started to appear—it really was the Map. Harry handed it to Hermione, saying, "I think you'd better keep it. That way, we won't risk them finding it..."

Hermione took it and examined it with a frown.

"They're still in the detention?" Ron asked, trying to look at the map from behind Hermione's back.

"Yes..." she said uncertainly. "Except for James, though. I can't find him."

"Is he coming?" Ron asked, horrified. "Better put his stuff back, Harry!"

Harry didn't need telling twice. He started throwing all the things back to the trunk, leaving them in even bigger mess then they were when he had opened the trunk. He was almost finished when Hermione exclaimed, "I can't believe it!"

"What?" both boys asked in unison.

"Guess where James is! I'll bet McGonagall didn't let him go there!"

Ron took the map and scanned through it until his eyes widened in disbelief.

"I never heard of McGonagall letting anyone from detention early," he said, shaking his head.

"Where is he? Tell me!" Harry inquired impatiently.

"On the Quidditch pitch! And judging from the speed of the dot, he's flying, too!"

"You know what? I think we'd better go outside as well; now that we have a Map, there's no point in us staying inside any longer," Ron said. Hermione agreed and they both headed to the door, Harry following them closely.

None of them noticed that there was one thing that Harry didn't put back into the trunk. It was the photo of James and his father, which he carefully folded and hid in his pocket.

**

* * *

**

No matter how impossible it seemed, the truth was that McGonagall really did let James out from the detention for the Quidditch practice. Everyone in Gryffindor seemed rather pleased with her decision and all the sixth-years, who were outside with Harry, Ron and Hermione now among them, watched the year's first practice enthusiastically.

Harry felt very proud when he saw his father flying—he was extremely good, and moreover, he really knew how to make other Chasers work as a team—even if he was much better than his teammates, he didn't play the whole game by himself, which could easily happen. He was explaining something to Heather, who was nodding vigorously while Harry watched.

Lily Evans noticed Harry's awe and said in a sarcastic voice, "Please, don't tell me that you're joining his fan club—I couldn't stand that. Not after thinking that I finally found someone with more sense."

Harry looked at her with surprise and then replied sarcastically, "Well, actually, joining his fan club did cross my mind. But after a serious consideration, I decided it simply wouldn't be enough—I thought about idolizing him as a god and building a temple..."

Lily, who at first seemed startled, snorted and playfully hit Harry on his arm. He smiled at her, while Hermione joined their conversation. "You have to admit that he is good..."

"Well, maybe in Quidditch—but I bet that you could beat him in chess if you wanted, Harry." At that, it was Ron's turn to snort.

"Lily, what did he make you believe?" he asked, pointing at Harry. "He's terrible in chess. If he was to beat James in anything, it would surely be Quidditch, not chess. He's much better at flying than strategy."

He immediately knew after he finished that he had said too much, and saw the alarmed look Hermione cast in his direction.

Lily was probably more puzzled by their sudden nervousness than the sense of Ron's comment.

"So you play Quidditch?" she asked.

"Who plays Quidditch?" Lea Leafdrop joined into the conversation.

"Harry and Ron—a little," Hermione answered the double question, not letting her friends say anything. "Not very well—they never had anyone to practice with them. They only learned basics by themselves, and that's all..."

"Oh—I see," Lea replied. "I only asked because there's a spot open on the team. Martin, our previous Seeker, graduated last year. They will probably be holding tryouts sometime soon. Alice wanted to try out, didn't you?" she nudged other girl, who wasn't listening to them and was instead staring at the fliers dreamily.

Alice nodded without even looking at them. Lea smirked at her and then continued with a laugh,

"She's hopeless. The first girl to fall in love with Quidditch instead of a guy..."

Harry hoped that the change of the subject would cover up Ron's little mistake—that had been too close. It was a good thing that Hermione had such good mental reflexes to be able to come up with a proper explanation about where Harry had learned to play Quidditch. Even during careless chats like this they had to be wary. Constant vigilance, just as Moody used to say.

**

* * *

**

The rest of the afternoon passed rather uneventfully. After the Quidditch practice was over, everybody returned to Gryffindor Tower. It was getting late, so they started preparing things for tomorrow—the first day of lessons. Lily handed out the schedules, and Harry discovered that he had the Herbology as his first lesson tomorrow. He didn't take N.E.W.T.s in that subject, but he still had to attend the "normal" lessons. Defense Against the Dark Arts was his last lesson on Friday.

When they all finished comparing their schedules and the subjects which each of them took, they all went down to the Great Hall for dinner.

Harry found himself sitting between Lily and Ron, enjoying their meal. Harry was joking and having a good time with both his old and new friends when suddenly, he felt a strange shiver. He turned around and saw James Potter glaring at him, jealousy written all over his face.

_Right, the last thing I need. My own father thinking I'm trying to steal my mother from him._ He could tell, judging by James' hateful expression, that his troubles with Marauders had only just begun.


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer:** Nothing new in this matter... pity:(

**Author note:** Thanks for reviews, they mean a lot to me.

**Author note 2:** Edited thanks to Aln-Mai:)

**Chapter 7**

And so school began.

It was amazing how similar the first lessons in the year 1976 were to those twenty years later. Most of the teachers started with the boring talk about the necessity of hard work and difficulty of the N.E.W.T.s considering the meager two-year-long period they had to prepare for the examination. They didn't wait and started hurrying along with very advanced material. Even Hermione admitted that she hadn't expected the classes to be this demanding.

McGonagall immediately assigned their first essay, two rolls of parchment to be handed by their next lesson, which happened to be only one day later. Flitwick gave them long list of spells they should master by themselves, because there would be no time for that during class. Professor Kettleburn asked for the detailed description of their experiences with magical animals so far.

All the teachers seemed to share the belief that Harry, Ron and Hermione might have a lot of problems with adjusting and made some sort of test for the new students, refusing to rely on the O.W.L. results.

Potions class was the biggest shock. The teacher, Madame Arielle Dose, was an old, white-haired woman. She wore glasses with ridiculously thick lenses and had terrifyingly wrinkled hands. She was the only teacher who didn't welcome them with a long speech. In fact, apart from a short _good morning_, she didn't say anything at all. There were some instructions on the blackboard, but the students didn't get to work. They talked loudly and walked freely around the laboratory, while Madam Dose did nothing but bury herself in some papers, oblivious to everything going on around her.

Harry, Ron and Hermione weren't surprised when it turned out that apart from few overachievers, no one really bothered with the potion they were supposed to be brewing.

"You know what, Harry?" Ron said after a short contemplation of everything around them, "I think I can actually start liking this subject, don't you?"

Harry only laughed in response. Hermione looked irritated, though.

"We'll never learn anything this way," she fumed. "And don't forget that you both will have to excel in the subject later on."

"Don't worry—I bet that with the lessons like this, each of us knows Potions better then the rest of the class combined. That is—apart from Snape." They all looked at the Slytherin boy, who was in the middle of producing something in his cauldron. It certainly had nothing to do with the draught from the blackboard. He had a thick book open on the desk and flipped through it while adding some ingredients to his potion.

The mayhem continued throughout the whole lesson.

* * *

Finally, the long week was coming to an end. Harry was already tired and overworked, even though it was only the beginning. Almost every teacher gave them some research to do or an essay to prepare. He felt glad that he had Defense Against the Dark Arts for his last lesson; for him, it was as if the weekend started early.

Feeling relaxed, he sat up front with Lily on his left and Ron and Hermione right behind him. It became a pattern—Lily was very ambitious, just like Hermione, and wanted to have a place near to the teacher to make sure that she didn't miss anything important. Harry suspected that another reason was the fact that the Marauders happened to sit in the back during most of the classes, and Lily obviously wanted to avoid them.

Harry waited anxiously for the lesson to begin and listened half-heartedly to Alice, who stood next to their desk and gossiped about the DADA professor, Mr. Olaf Lindberg. He had already taught for two years and was both a skilled and a demanding teacher, a little bit similar to Professor McGonagall, although with a very sarcastic and sometimes vicious sense of humor. Before getting the job at Hogwarts, he had been an Auror in Norway for about twenty years, so he had a lot of practical experience.

Exactly one minute before the beginning, Mr. Lindberg entered the classroom. He was lean and tall, and had long, greyish hair tied at the back. There were some frown-marks on his forehead and he had a big, ugly scar—one end of it was visible on his left hand and disappeared into the sleeve of his robe. Without a single word to the students, he started to summon different objects and books, muttering some spells and waving his wand with ease and some laziness. His desk slowly filled with seemingly random stuff and he finished exactly at the moment when the bell rang. He didn't even need to quiet the class; everyone's attention was on him already.

"Welcome in the N.E.W.T.-level Defense Against the Dark Arts course. I want to warn you that we are going to proceed into an extremely dangerous and difficult branch of magic this year, so anyone—I repeat—anyone, who is not sure that he can handle a certain number of injuries should leave the classroom now."

He almost whispered, yet his voice was perfectly audible in deadly silent room. No one spoke, no one moved. Mr. Lindberg continued his speech.

"All of you here have received an outstanding grade on your O.W.L., but it doesn't mean that you are ready to deal with all the challenges awaiting you this year. Until now, you used to be the best and in some cases, you probably found my lessons too easy. This is going to change. Everybody will have to put a considerably larger amount of effort into this class. If you are not ready for that, you may leave now."

It seemed a little strange to Harry that the professor had mentioned resigning from his course twice in such a short speech. He sounded almost as if he wanted to scare people away. Harry wondered briefly if that wasn't mostly directed at him, Ron and Hermione. If Mr. Lindberg believed, as did some other teachers, that being home-tutored meant they were not capable to deal with the stress, then he certainly expected that they were even less prepared for injuries.

Professor Lindberg continued speaking for quite a long while. He told them exactly what they going to cover during the coming two years and then mentioned that students would have to participate in one large project every semester. The projects were supposed to be done in groups of three, which Professor Lindberg himself would oversee. After he finished explaining all the details about the way the project would be marked, he looked around the classroom silently and finally asked, "Any questions?"

No one spoke—he really made everything clear, so there was no need for any additional information.

"Very well. Before we proceed, there is one more thing which I believe that needs to be done. Please, could you all stand up and move away from your desks?" Everybody stood up and moved to the wall, obeying the teacher's order silently. As soon as they were finished, Professor Lindberg made a complicated gesture with his wand and all the furniture from the classroom disappeared. Harry heard Hermione whispering to Ron, "That was quite impressive."

"Miss Bradley, could I ask you to stop talking with your brother? I am aware that you aren't used to the discipline demanded in schools such as Hogwarts, but you should understand by now that you have to remain concentrated throughout the whole lesson. Conversations with other students do not help achieving that. Now—the other Mr. Bradley first, I suppose. Please, come and stand over there." He beckoned to Harry and pointed at the far end of the classroom.

Harry went there, wondering what was going on. Some if his anxiety was probably visible, as Professor Lindberg commented without the smile, "No need to be afraid. I need to assess your capabilities and therefore you are now going to take part in the wizarding duel. It would be the first duel in your life, wouldn't it?"

"Yes, sir," Harry replied without hesitation. Lying about his past was getting easier and easier every day.

"I need a volunteer to fight against Mr. Bradley." People started to whisper to each other, obviously as surprised by the unexpected situation as Harry was. Suddenly a voice was heard above the muttering.

"I can do it, sir." Harry turned his head to see the person whom he was going to face and when he did, he paled and blinked few times rapidly. He felt as if a big, heavy stone was lying on his chest. It was James Potter! How was he supposed to fight against his father?

James walked to the spot on the opposite end of the classroom—right where the teacher's desk had stood just a moment ago. He looked determined, and there was a fire in his eyes—was he trying to get revenge on Harry for what he believed to be the stealing of his girlfriend? Or was he simply preparing himself for the fight? Harry didn't know, but it didn't really matter to him. His legs were weak as if they were made of jelly, and his hands were sweating from the nervousness he felt. He couldn't do it! It was too much—meeting his own father when he was Harry's age was hard enough, but being forced to throw curses and hexes at him—he couldn't do it. The hateful glares that James threw at Harry didn't help.

Suddenly Harry realized that Professor Lindberg was talking again. He tried to focus on his words.

"...so I want you to pay close attention to the duel. I will ask you to point out Mr. Bradley's mistakes afterwards. We haven't done much dueling yet—think about it as about your first lesson on the subject. Mr. Bradley, James—are you ready?"

"Yes, sir!" James answered and took his wand out. Harry did the same and met James' eyes. The other boy sneered.

"Begin!"

"_Aquatulum_!" Harry moved only because of his instincts—he didn't even try to use magic to defend himself, to say nothing of striking back. He was not fast enough, though, and soon he was soaking wet, which revealed how thin he actually was under the layers of robes.

"_Impedimenta_!" James didn't wait and sent another curse in direction of his opponent. Harry summoned a protective shield, but James knew the countercurse and Harry was defenseless again.

James cast one spell after another, deliberately choosing the most humiliating and painful ones he could think of. Harry managed to avoid some of them, but others hit him with their full power. Soon his face was covered with large red spots, his glasses were broken and his left hand grew to an abnormal size. He hoped desperately that Professor Lindberg would end the duel, but the man seemed oblivious to the fact that Harry wasn't fighting at all.

James, on the other hand, was fully aware of this, and it further increased his anger.

"Fight, you coward!" he shouted. It wasn't satisfying at all, winning over someone like this. He felt disgusted with both himself and Harry. That was certainly not what he wanted. Finally he decided to finish it; there was no point in torturing the boy.

"_Expelliarmus_!" he said, not even bothering to do it loudly. Harry's wand flew into the air, and the boy smiled, obviously relieved, and collapsed to the floor a moment later.

James looked around. He hadn't noticed other people during the duel at all; he had concentrated only on the enemy. Now he could see the expressions of the other students. Sirius smirked, leaning against the wall, and Remus shook his head when he caught his eye. Lily looked disgusted and furious, holding Hermione's hand. Both Ron and Hermione were pale and boiling with anger.

"Thank you, James," Mr. Lindberg spoke. "That was too harsh, I guess, but it was a fine job nonetheless. _Ennervate._ _Finite Incantatem._" He cast the spells, pointing his wand at Harry, and soon, he regained consciousness. "Mr. Bradley, go to the hospital wing, please. Madame Pomfrey will know how to remove the effects of the curses you've suffered."

Harry got up, trying to fight the nausea. He noticed his wand and bent over to pick it up, but he stumbled and almost fell.

"Professor!" Lily cried. "He's not well enough to go there by himself. Let me walk him!"

James looked as if someone slapped him. Was she blind or something? This boy was a pathetic coward, why would she stick with him like that?

"You are right, Miss Evans, you had better go with him. You really were too harsh, James," Professor Lindberg said as Lily helped Harry up and they slowly left the room.

"Well, that was—disappointing. I am not sure whether I shall continue with the duels—perhaps I should simply not accept you into this class either." He looked at Ron and Hermione questioningly. "I wouldn't want to see something like that again any time soon."

"Professor—you shouldn't judge Harry by that..." Hermione started to reply, alarmed by the words _not accept you EITHER.._ Mr. Lindberg looked at the girl sharply.

"I don't think it's your decision, Miss Bradley. What I want to know is whether you want to follow in your brother's steps, or are you ready to take part in a duel?"

Hermione glared at the man and headed without comment to the back of the class, where Harry had stood before his duel.

"I see—Sirius, would you be so kind to partner this young lady?" The question was oddly formed and the mischievous Marauder replied instantly, with the same fake charming smile he had on at the welcome feast.

"Of course, Professor. I'd love to be her partner." A few people laughed.

"Try not to hurt her. I wouldn't want two students injured during one lesson."

Sirius stood at the opposite end of classroom. He looked very self-confident, with one hand on his hip. Hermione focused and tried to calm down.

"BEGIN!"

Hermione didn't wait with the attack. She used all her skills and easily blocked the first few hexes, not very dangerous ones. Her attack, an well-aimed Bat-Bogey Hex, reached the target. Sirius' smirk disappeared, but he removed the bat wings with a wave of his wand. Both of them thought exactly the same thing: _That's not going to be easy_.

Different spells flew between them with enormous speed. They attacked and blocked and dodged, getting more and more tired. Sirius, who seemed to enjoy himself during the first part of the duel, was slowly losing his patience. He tried more violent, stronger curses, but it didn't help. She countered them all! And not only that, she actually threw a few spells which he didn't recognize!

He had to do something different, original, unexpected—only what? Suddenly an idea, a stupid idea struck him.

They paused for a while, trying to catch a breath and eyeing each other warily. Sirius pretended to cough, while in fact he said an incantation. Hermione looked surprised for a while and suddenly burst into uncontrolled laughter. A tickling charm. Anything more powerful wouldn't work without a proper pronunciation.

He disarmed her and muttered _Finite Incantatem_ as soon as her wand was safe in his hand. She looked at him, breathing heavily from the effort and, to his utter surprise, with her voice still a little bit shaky, she thanked him for an interesting fight.

He gaped at her throughout the rest of the lesson, not really paying attention to the third duel (Ron versus some Ravenclaw boy, won by Hermione's brother after about ten seconds). How could he have misjudged this girl so much? He was sure she was average (apart from her looks), easy-to-get and even-easier-to-dump girl, like most of the girls he met and dated. But there must be more to her, after seeing how she fought so well and spoke so nonchalantly after their duel—and he was going to make sure that he was the first guy to find out all the other intriguing talents and qualities she possessed.


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer: **It's getting hard to think of something new to write here – and anyway, you all know it, I know it, J.K. Rowling knows it, all the publishers know it – so what's the point of repeating this once again?

**Author note: **Thanks for the reviews. Have fun:)

**Author note 2:**Another one edited! Ah! I'm so glad:) Anyway, I can only do one thing: thank Aln-Mai, my wonderful beta-reader:)

**Chapter 8**

Madam Pomfrey fixed Harry in no time. She praised him for not even flinching when she poured some disgusting potion down his throat and painfully removed the effects of all the different curses James had used. But Harry didn't really feel he deserved the compliment.

He had acted like a total jerk! Idiot! Imbecile! Coward—yeah, he was pretty sure that after the duel, everybody apart from Ron and Hermione would think he was a coward. Well, he knew that it wasn't true, but still—the bitter feeling of failure prevented him from falling asleep in the warm hospital bed.

Why couldn't he get a grip of himself? Of course, it wasn't that he should have actually fought his father, but there were so many harmless ways of dealing with the situation. A simple _Expelliarmus_ would have been sufficient.

God, he had managed to stand up to Lord Voldemort himself and all of sudden he was incapable of finding the way to win against sixteen-year-old James Potter!

He closed his eyes and shifted in the bed, trying to find a more comfortable position. But it didn't help; his mind was still circling around the duel. Back then, he had been absolutely petrified by the hate he saw in his father's eyes, he was unable to think coherently. Now however, he saw with the terrifying clarity all the consequences of his actions, or rather the lack of them.

It was obvious that the teacher, Professor Lindberg, was very unlikely to accept him into the class after that. This wasn't a real problem, though. He could ask Dumbledore for help, and once the old wizard understood the situation, he certainly would talk with Lindberg and convince him to give Harry another chance.

The thing that Harry was really worried about was of a totally different nature. Until now, he had hoped that he would be able to sort things out with James and Sirius and maybe—just maybe—get to know their good sides. He was not really sure what was he expecting to happen, but he knew that he had been given a once-in-a-lifetime chance to get to know his parents, and now, that chance was surely gone. His father would never accept him now, same as Sirius...

And Lily? Well, she certainly wasn't going to reject him—after all, she was the one who took care of him right after the duel, but he wasn't so sure what her reasons were. What if she did it because she was annoyed and wanted to wind James up? Or if she thought it was her duty as a prefect?

And even if that wasn't the case, now she certainly would think that Harry was some weak, delicate wimp, unable to take care of himself—that definitely was not what Harry wanted.

* * *

Hermione had the rest of the lesson to think about everything that had happened. She give her own duel a second thought. She was too worried about Harry. She knew that he would be very ashamed of himself and regarding the state of mind he had been in for the past few months, this was not good. She could only hope he would be able to look at things reasonably.

Entirely another problem was dealing with Professor Lindberg. She decided to talk to him after the lesson. She had to convince him to give Harry a chance. Maybe another duel, with someone else? Or some sort of test?

She waited anxiously for the lesson to finish and walked directly to the teacher's desk.

"Professor Lindberg...." she began, but the man interrupted her rudely.

"I know what you are about to say, Miss Bradley, but I am not going to change my mind. Letting your brother take part in an advanced course like this would put him in danger. I'm sorry." He turned away from her and resumed vanishing all the peculiar objects from his desk. But Hermione was not going to give up this easily. A plan started to form in her head.

"That's not what I was going to ask about, Professor," she said smoothly. "Harry will surely prefer to talk to you himself." She was perfectly polite. The man looked at her, bewildered.

"No? Well, what is it, then?"

"I was wondering—you see—I had some problems with one spell, which Harry showed me—we decided that maybe the problem was that he didn't know how to _teach_ me the spell—explain all the details, which he did without thinking—I was wondering if you could help me, Professor..." She looked at the teacher, hoping that her strategy would work. Indeed, he seemed quite interested.

"And what is the spell, Miss Bradley?"

"Oh—the _Patronus_ charm, Professor," she said, trying to sound innocent. Her plan was very simple. She wanted the man to believe that Harry had mastered the charm without any effort. That might make him reconsider allowing Harry into the class—after all, this was a truly advanced piece of magic.

The man blinked few times in astonishment.

"Are you sure you aren't confusing the name, Miss Bradley?"

"Oh, I don't think so. I mean the charm to fight away dementors, Professor."

"Ah, yes. It's the right charm, then."

"I can't make my Patronus corporeal. I don't know why—all I can do is this silvery mist—would you help me?"

Hermione watched the man with amusement. He actually was embarrassed. Why would he be? Did he...?

"I'm afraid I can't help you, Miss Bradley. The charm you are talking about exceeds the normal defense course and I have no time to teach everybody the things they want to learn individually..." He didn't meet her gaze, and she was sure that he was lying. He simply couldn't produce the Patronushimself! That was amusing!

But, on second thought, that might turn disastrous. If he was an envious sort of person, her plan was bound to backfire—he would be even more unwilling to accept Harry after he knew that he could do a spell which was too complicated for him.

She only hoped it wasn't the case.

* * *

Professor Lindberg was sitting in his office that Friday evening, waiting for Harry Bradley to come. After the conversation he had with his sister earlier, he was sure that the boy would come as soon as he was dismissed from the hospital wing.

He didn't really know how to deal with this particular student. On one hand, his duel had been terrible, pathetic, and simply insufficient for the N.E.W.T. course. But then, if the boy really could produce a Patronus—it was the charm which, a long time ago, had almost caused his expulsion from the Auror Academy. Maybe the boy didn't have the guts to become a warrior or Auror, but if he could perform the Patronus Charm, he must have some talent. No matter how much he—as a teacher—would prefer not to have the boy in his class, he should give him a chance, shouldn't he? Then again, although he didn't fight during his duel, he didn't run, he didn't hide, he didn't even cry from the pain, which some of the curses he had received had surely caused. In some ways, it was impressive.

A knock on the door stopped his train of thought.

"Come in!" he shouted, looking at Bradley as he entered the room and closed the door after himself quietly. The boy didn't really look scared—in fact, he didn't even appear nervous. But he was not going to make it easy for Harry.

"What would you like to tell me, Mr. Bradley?"

"Professor, I wanted to ask if you could let me stay in the N.E.W.T.-level class," the boy answered, not lowering his gaze.

"Why should I do it?" he demanded, wondering what answer the boy would come up with.

"Well—the duel I had with James Potter—there was an important reason, a personal reason, why I didn't fight back. I can't tell you what it is exactly—but if you need someone to confirm my words, sir, you can ask Professor Dumbledore. He knows the reason—I am ready to prove that I am good enough to be in Defense Against the Dark Arts, I really am. I know it's going to sound stupid and you probably won't believe me, but I taught Hermione and Ron half of what they know, and you've seen them, sir..." He looked at him with some hope in his eyes.

"You ask me to test your courage and practical knowledge once again? Even though you already have failed once? Normally, I wouldn't agree. But in your case—your sister said something which led me to the belief that you are actually quite capable. She said that you could do a very advanced spell—the Patronus Charm."

The boy didn't even bother to answer, he simply took out his wand and shouted, "_Expecto Patronum!"_ A silver stag erupted from the tip of the wand and galloped around the room a few times before dissolving into mist and evaporating.

Professor Lindberg stared at the boy with a contemplative look for a while. Finally he spoke.

"I have to admit I am impressed. But this is still not enough. In fact, I should ask you to do the thing that was too difficult for you previously—but if you say there was an important reason—I shall talk to Professor Dumbledore about it. Now, the question is, how should I test you, if not by the duel?"

Harry blinked few times. This wasn't a rhetorical question; the teacher really wanted him to reply. What was he supposed to suggest?

"I don't know, sir. But—dueling isn't a problem. It's only when I have to face some particular people—apart from James Potter, Lily Evans and Sirius Black, I could duel with anyone."

Olaf Lindberg was confused by the answer. He could understand the general problem with dueling. He had met a few people in his life who simply couldn't stand to hurt anyone, or something like that. He had assumed that this was the case with the boy. But now—why would he have something against facing those particular teenagers, if he had only known them for a week? Maybe he simply chose those which were the best in the subject, because he was afraid of losing?

His face didn't show any of his bewilderment though. Instead, he smirked at the boy's impertinence.

"You can fight with anyone? That's fine. You are going to fight me, then." He expected the boy to be at least disappointed, if not frightened by the prospect, but his assumptions were wrong. The boy breathed deeply and smiled, obviously relived.

"Thank you, sir. Now?"

"No. Tomorrow, after breakfast. It's late and you already have been in the hospital wing once today."

"Yes, sir. Thank you, sir. Good night, sir." With that, he turned on his feet and left, whistling merrily.

Lindberg only muttered "good night" to the closed doors.

* * *

Lily and Alice were astonished when they heard all the details about the meeting with Lindberg. It wasn't merely the nature of the demand of the teacher, but more the fact that Harry seemed so unperturbed.

Harry went up to his dorm early that evening. He didn't want to discuss anything with the others and really wanted to avoid his father and the rest of the Marauders tonight. He saw the four boys during dinner, but avoided them and sat in the other end of the table. He felt miserable enough without listening to some cruel remarks.

Ron followed Harry up the stairs as well, and so the girls were left alone in the common room. They talked about Harry, obviously.

Lily couldn't understand why Harry would, at first, act the way he did during the duel with James and then accept a much more challenging duel with the teacher. Deep inside, she was scared that he had done it because he wanted to impress her, and she didn't want him to be in danger for such a stupid reason. Hermione simply shrugged her shoulders at that and said that she was sure that his main reason was staying in the DADA class.

"I'd rather worry about how Harry will cope with all the teasing that he'll get from James and Sirius..." she said sadly.

"Oh, I told him plenty of times that he shouldn't worry about what do those jerks think about him. They are ruthless and stupid, never able to see further than their own noses." Lily was on her favorite topic. Whenever it came to this troublesome four, she could speak for half an hour without a pause. She was quite creative when it came to insults for Potter, Black, Lupin or Pettigrew. And this time, it seemed that it was even worse.

She had her back turned to the portrait hole, so she didn't notice when it opened and the four boys entered the common room. They were not talking, and when they saw the girls sitting by the fire, they stopped on their way up to the dorm.

James moved away from the group and took few uncertain steps in the direction of the girls. Lily was still oblivious to his presence, continuing with her "I hate Potter" rambling.

"Lily... shhh!" Hermione said when she noticed the boy standing close behind them. She was not sure whether his cheeks were red from embarrassment and anger or from the heat coming from the fireplace.

Lily turned around and blinked a few times when she saw the unhappy boy. She didn't like him, but she had no intention of hurting him. And she could see that her words had touched him. She felt a pang of guilt and was about to apologize when he spoke first, his fists clenched.

"Nice to know that you think so well about me, Evans. But you know what? I'm tired of this. I'm just tired of you blaming me for everything. Perfect-Miss-Prefect with your sympathy for chickens—I'm just tired of this..." He was pale now and his voice trailed off as he slowly realized what he had just said.

Lily's eyes opened wide. James Potter had never insulted her before, no matter what she said or did. In some incomprehensible way it hurt her, although she couldn't understand why, and she never would admit it to herself. She opened and closed her mouth few times, before her temper got better of her.

"Yes? Perfect-Miss-Prefect? At least I don't go around and throw hexes at people for no reason. I don't go around as if the school belonged to me. I don't go around and hurt people just because I don't like them!"

"Oh no, Evans, you never do that..." he said, both sarcastically and sadly, and then turned on his feet and stormed away.

Lily gaped at his retreating back for a while and then looked at her friends uncertainly.

"I—I think I'll go to bed..." she mumbled, and headed upstairs. Alice and Hermione both followed her, and Alice put her arm around Lily's shoulders comfortingly.

It was probably the only Friday when almost all the Gryffindor sixth-years went to sleep so early.


	9. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer:** Blah, blah, blah.... This whole disclaimer thing is so annoying... Go back to the previous chapters.

**Author note:** Right... I recently discovered the wonderful C2 named Harry Potter Stories Actually Worth Your Time And Eye Strain and got so involved in some stories there, that I just couldn't make myself write. So, I am very sorry for the delay.

And I want to really thank you for the reviews I received:) You guys are really the only reason why I actually wrote this chapter.

Oh, and another thing. Some of you wrote that Lindberg is not a very good wizard, because he can't produce the Patronus. That's not true. He actually vanished all the furniture from the classroom with nothing more than a wave of his wand, which even impressed Hermione! In PoA Lupin said that Patronus was an extremely difficult spell and many powerful wizards had problems with it. It's the case of Lindberg, which doesn't make him weak. Sorry, if I didn't explain everything correctly in the story.

**Author note 2:** Thanks, Aln-mai, thanks a lot:)

**Chapter 9**

Harry woke up the next morning around seven o'clock, neither sleepy nor tired. He had gone to bed very early last evening, so it wasn't very surprising.

He laid in his bed for a while before deciding that it was pointless to try and sleep again. He got up carefully and slowly, not wanting to wake up the other boys in the room. Some sunshine was falling into the room through the closed curtains. Harry headed to the window and pulled open the curtains to let more sunshine into the dorm. It was a beautiful day. There was some morning mist on the grounds and a bright, fresh morning light filled the air. A spider was sitting patiently in a spider-web in the corner of the window and few drops of water on it sparkled in the sun.

The breathtaking view filled his heart with strange feeling of joy. In his situation it was a rather unexpected emotion. There was a duel with an ex-Auror in front of him, his own father, godfather and his best friends thought that he was a coward and a wimp, not to mention the fact that he was out of his time and without the hope of return any time soon. Yet, for no particular reason, he felt reassured.

He heard Ron and other boys fidgeting in their beds. Not thinking about it, he pulled back the curtains, put on some random clothes and went out for a walk.

He wandered around pointlessly and enjoyed the peaceful loneliness. After a whole week of the constant tension and fighting with his father, it was the first time when he could relax.

He didn't really care where he was going and subconsciously he found himself near the Quidditch pitch. He looked up at the goal posts and suddenly an idea struck him. After all, why not? Everybody else wouldn't wake up for at least another two hours, so nobody would see him.

Again without thinking, he ran to the Quidditch changing rooms and grabbed one of the school brooms, which looked relatively new. Soon he was up in the sky, enjoying the beautiful morning and warm wind. He hadn't realized how much he had missed flying, but it would be enough to say that at that moment, he had forgotten about all his troubles, and was feeling nothing more than pure happiness.

* * *

While flying, Harry completely lost track of time. When the other boys in his dorm woke up two hours later, he was still on the Quidditch pitch, making crazy dives and loops, which done by anyone less skilled, could easily result in a very dangerous accident.

The first person to notice him was James, who had the bed next to the window. He was in the middle of stretching and yawning, when a fast movement outside caught his eyes. He stared for a long while at Harry, speechless. From the distance he couldn't tell who was on the broom, but it was clear that whoever it was, he was an excellent flier. He had just made a very abrupt turn in front of the stands and for a short while, he hovered next to them. Then, very suddenly, he was flying again. There was something about his way of sitting that suggested that he would be even faster if he only he had a better broom.

Suddenly James gasped and leaped to the window.

"Oh, god! He'll kill himself!" he shouted.

The rest of Marauders also jumped to the window. They all stared at Harry, who had just accomplished a very difficult version of the Wronski feint. They were so absorbed by the view that they didn't notice the horrified look on Ron's face. They also didn't hear that slam of the doors when, dressed in nothing more then his pajamas, he started to run down to the Quidditch pitch, not aware of how comical he looked, determined to get Harry off the broom before he got them into any trouble. The three of them had been warned that if people got suspicious of their cover story, the Ministry could change their decision about letting them to go to Hogwarts and put them into isolation, as they had planned in the beginning. And flying as well as Harry did was certainly not the thing that anyone would expect from a person who was home tutored and had never had an occasion to practice Quidditch.

The Marauders were still gaping at Harry.

"Wow!" said Sirius. "Who's that? I don't recall anyone flying like that here—it looks like you're going to have competition this year, James," he added with a twisted smile.

"Where did this guy learn to fly like that?" James was wondering loudly.

"Maybe that's the new Slytherin seeker—I heard they found someone way better than Henderson and made him swap positions so the new guy could play..." Remus suggested.

"What?" James asked, bewildered. "Where did you hear about that? And why didn't you tell me?"

"You learn different things at the prefect meetings," the blond boy replied with a smirk. "And I forgot to tell you..."

"Forgot...? This is IMPORTANT, Remus. Just look how this guy flies," he added, and turned back to the window again—but to his dismay, the superb flier was nowhere to be seen.

"Right, I guess we'll just have to train more, then." he commented, opening his trunk and sitting heavily on his bed. He bent down and started searching for different clothes.

"You know what, James? It's a wonder you can find anything there, honestly," Remus said with a chuckle, when he saw how messy his things were.

Sirius laughed at that.

"He told me once that he doesn't need more than ten seconds to find anything in there."

"That's true!" James defended himself. "If it wasn't, I wouldn't keep it like this..."

"Is it, Prongs?" Sirius challenged.

"I can prove it! Just name the object you want me to find, and you'll see!" James retorted, shrugging his shoulders nonchalantly.

"Fine—let's say—it should be something that's not lying in view—hmm—right, I know. Find the Map. One, two, three..."

While Sirius counted loudly, James started to throw things out of his trunk with amazing speed. Soon, his clothes were strewn all across the room.

"...eight, nine, TEN! You've lost, Jamsie—I should have made a bet with you on that one." He was grinning happily. James didn't reply, though, and he continued his search. Finally, he looked up with a triumphant smile.

"It's not in here. I don't have it, which means I didn't lose. We can have a bet if you want, though..."

"What do you mean it's not there?" Remus asked, sounding a bit irritated. "I'm sure it was you who had it!"

"Look, my trunk is empty, so it can't be there!" James was nervous. "Maybe one of you guys took it."

"I knew that this mess you've got everywhere would sooner or later lead us to some trouble," Remus snapped.

"Check once again, James—I'm sure you had it." Sirius wasn't worried, he very rarely took anything seriously. He had the air of a person who always had a situation under control. So, with the typical self-confidence, he took his towel and headed to the bathroom, sure that his friends would find the Map very soon.

Remus and Peter helped James with the search, and finally they gave up. They couldn't find the precious piece of parchment anywhere.

* * *

Then the door of the dorm opened again. Harry and Ron entered, expecting to be flooded with questions about Harry's skills in Quidditch.

They were more than a little relieved to learn that not only had the Marauders not recognized him, but they apparently had some other problem on their hands and hadn't really tried to identify the mysterious flier.

It was after breakfast, and Harry and his friends were on their way to the DADA classroom. Ron was still taunting him about the morning incident and Hermione agreed that it was very careless of him to let people see him flying, even if they didn't know it was him. However, they had to stop when they heard hurried footsteps behind them and turned around to discover Lily trying to catch up with them.

"Oh my..." she said, a bit out of breath. "I was calling after you guys, but you didn't hear me..." She looked sympathetically at Harry. "I wanted to be there, you know—it is just so unfair of Lindberg to make you fight like this again..."

Harry smiled, shrugging his shoulders.

"I don't really mind—as long as I can stay in the class—he is right, you know. He has to make sure I don't end up in the Hospital Wing every lesson."

Lily raised her eyebrows at that. She had not been sitting with the trio during the breakfast, but she had seen that they were discussing something and seemed pretty worried, so she assumed that Harry was afraid of the duel ahead of him. She certainly would be. She had wanted to cheer him up a little, and now was taken aback by the fact that he acted as if he was totally unperturbed by the whole situation.

She pondered it for a while, and decided that Harry was probably pretending to be confident to give himself some courage.

Finally, they reached the classroom. Professor Lindberg was already there and acknowledged them with a short nod.

"I see you brought some company, Bradley," he sneered.

"They only walked me here, Professor. If you want us to stay alone, then they'll wait outside," Harry replied calmly.

"No, they can watch if they want to. I don't care, as long as they don't help you in any way." He glanced at them and then turned back to Harry. "How about that? I let them stay, if they give me their wands first."

Harry blinked few times. Lindberg expected him to cheat? He wasn't a Slytherin!

"That's fine with me."

Lily, Hermione and Ron were clearly not happy about the teacher's request, but they didn't really have a choice. They handed him their wands.

"Fine. Let's begin. Take your position, Mr. Bradley. When we are ready, please give the signal to begin, Miss Evans," he ordered and just like before, he waved his wand and made the desks disappear.

Harry stood on the far end of the classroom, in fact in the very same spot where he had been in his first duel. He waited patiently as Professor Lindberg prepared himself.

Finally, they were both ready. They eyed each other while Lily counted to three. On three, both Harry and Lindberg shouted in a perfect unison.

"_Expelliarmus!_"

The flashes of red light flew through the air and both teacher and student dodged. Harry conjured a shield at the same time—not the primitive _Protego—_but one of the advanced protective charms which he had found in a textbook that he had read over the summer. A sphere of very bright light surrounded him, not only blinding everybody else in the room, but also preventing him from being hit by two curses send one after the other by his teacher.

Soon the duel started to speed up. It was similar to the one between Hermione and Sirius, only that the spells used this time were much more complicated. Still, neither of the opponents managed to hit the other one.

After some time, Lindberg started to get tired. He wasn't a young boy anymore, and he hadn't participated in a duel for quite a long time. He had to win this fast, otherwise his reactions would get too slow. He started to use less common and old-fashioned hexes, with few very powerful amongst them. It didn't help. Harry knew the counter-curses for some and managed to dodge the others. He had very good reflexes.

But Lindberg was certainly not going to give up. He cast an energy spell on himself and felt relieved when all the tiredness was gone. With his new strength, he managed finally to hit Harry with some curse, causing him to sweat enormously.

Harry's hands were wet and his wand has almost slipped out of his grip. He managed to hold onto it, though. The spell thrown by Lindberg had given him an original idea.

"_Glacialli Terra_!" he shouted, pointing his wand on the floor on the other end of the classroom. It worked! The floor started changing into extremely slippery ice. Lindberg obviously hadn't expected that, as he lost his balance and fell onto his back. Harry barely managed to disarm him before he fell as well, with the two wands clutched in his hand.

The duel was over, and Harry had won.

It was obvious that after such a spectacular victory, Harry would be accepted in the DADA class. He didn't really feel very proud of himself, though. In fact, when it was over, he felt so exhausted that he barely heard the story which Hermione was making up to explain how Harry could have lost against James and won against the teacher later.

The story was not very far from the truth. Hermione said simply that James looked very much like their father, who had died when they all were young. Harry was still very emotional about that, and so he couldn't attack James.

It took Hermione almost half of the walk back to Gryffindor Tower to convince Lily not to tell anybody about the duel. The redheaded girl couldn't understand why Hermione insisted so much on it, but she eventually promised to keep everything a secret.

To say that Lily was impressed with Harry's performance would be a huge understatement. While she walked with them back to the Gryffindor tower, she glanced at Harry shyly every now and then, and kept repeating that he was simply incredible.

She was still talking like that when they entered the almost-deserted common room, as everybody was outside. Actually, the only people present were the Marauders, who were in the middle of a very heated discussion.

"I remember perfectly well that we put it in your trunk, James!" Remus was visibly enraged, and that was a very rare occurrence.

Harry and Ron exchanged meaningful looks. They had guessed immediately what were other boys talking about. Hermione smirked for a brief moment, but then she turned back to Harry, who sat on the sofa.

"Would you like some chocolate?" Lily asked, concerned. "I'll go and fetch some," she added, not waiting for Harry to answer.

The Marauders stopped quarrelling and watched Ron and Hermione as they fussed over Harry, who was getting better; the sweat had begun to dry off of his clothing. James' eyes bored into Lily's retreating back as she walked up the stairs leading to the girls' dorms, and then turned with a hateful glare to Harry.

"You know what, guys? Let's go and discuss our business somewhere else," he said loudly, leaving the common room in an ostentatious way. The other Marauders followed him, although both Remus and Sirius were not very happy about it.

Remus felt a bit concerned as to the reason why Harry was so tired, and Sirius wanted to stay where Hermione was. They were good friends, though, and so they went after James, pretending that they were as displeased with the unexpected company as their unofficial leader was.


	10. Chapter 10

**Disclaimer:** Nothing new in this matter... pity:(

**Author note:** I AM SO SORRY FOR THE DELAY... Been gone for whole weekend, so I had no time to write... sorry, sorry, sorry. I promise to write the next chapter much sooner, maybe even by Friday.

This chapter is shorter, than my chapters usually are, but I just wanted desperately to post something, so I had it little shorter than planned. Sorry for that as well.

I have a question. Would you like me to write the personal responses for the reviews you are posting? I sometimes feel tempted to write them, to answer the questions or to thank the oldest reviewers. But when I'm reading other stories, then the long list of answers usually annoys me to no end. So, what should I do?

And as usually: THANKS FOR ALL THE REVIEWS!

Ah yes, one question I feel obliged to answer. I wrote in third chapter, that Harry was one year younger then Ron and Hermione, according to their cover story. I didn't really explain that, although I should have. The ministry workers, who made up the whole story, wanted it to be as believable as possible, so that other students didn't get suspicious. So they decided, that it would be strange, if in one year, there were two unrelated families, who decided not to let their children go to Hogwarts. It would be even stranger though, if they were triplets, so ministry wizards decided, to make Harry one year younger and just started his education in exactly the same time his brother and sister did. So, he is in the sixth year, even though, according to the cover story, he is one year younger. I hope it makes more sense now.

**Author note 2:** Once again, large thanks to Aln-Mai:)

**Chapter 10**

Lily was sitting in her bed and gazing outside the window. The other girls in the dormitory were already asleep. It was so quiet that Lily could clearly hear their calm breathing. Well—maybe calm wasn't exactly the best word, as Hermione and Heather were snoring quite loudly, each of them in her own different rhythm. On top of that, Lea was muttering something in her sleep.

Lily didn't listen to her, though. In fact, she was very deep in thought, trying to make some sense of the events of last few days. Events which mostly were mostly connected to one particular person—Harry Bradley.

First, he lost so pathetically his duel with James. Lily was still unsure how exactly it made her feel—disappointed to some extent, but also truly worried, worried that he was hurt.

Back then, she hadn't noticed that Harry hadn't screamed even once, nor showed any other sign of pain. But now, after the second duel, it suddenly appeared to be quite an important clue, if one wanted to solve the mystery of Harry Bradley.

Yes, the second duel—it was simply unbelievable. Not just because Harry had actually managed to win it—when it came to a confrontation like that, skills were just as important as luck. What truly left her speechless (or rather blabbing incoherently for the next half an hour) were the spells Harry had used. She didn't even recognize half of them! How did Harry, who was home-tutored only by his mother, know such advanced magic? For Lily, it just lacked logic.

But even with that puzzling matter aside, there were some other questions. If the whole story so far was true, then why had Hermione insisted so strongly on keeping the duel a secret?

Harry was considered a coward by quite a lot of the Gryffindors at the moment, and unless he had some other hidden reason, it would be perfectly natural for him to be proud of himself—and to want to change the opinion that others had about him.

So what was really going on? What was the reason behind Hermione's bizarre request? Lily had no idea, but she was pretty sure that there was much more to the three new students than met the eye. And she was going to find out what exactly they were hiding.

* * *

Albus Dumbledore was also up late that night, to his own dismay. However, he had just finished his work. He locked the door to his office and activated all the wards, which protected this place when he was out.

Instead of heading to his apartment, though, he suddenly decided to go for a walk and have some time alone—to think. There was a lot going on in Hogwarts, as usual. Teachers and students alike were coming to him with different requests and questions. The board of governors was, just like every year, annoying to no end. Not that he would ever admit it openly, but he simply hated the necessity of explaining his every decision to people who didn't really know what was needed for the school.

There were a lot of things that had yet to be done—if there ever was a person truly fond of his job, it was Albus Dumbledore. And even now, after an exhausting day of dealing with plenty of important issues, he still walked about with his thoughts circling around his job instead of going to bed, as anybody else would do.

Actually, his focus was mostly on the particular three students who had joined Hogwarts' population just that year. Yes...interesting, they certainly were very interesting.

First the girl—he barely knew her, and already he was struck by her impressive intelligence. She had managed to discover without any help that they had traveled back in time. She had gotten absolutely brilliant results in her O.W.L.s—much more than he would ever expect from a student who had probably hadn't touched the textbook for at least two months.

Then came the redheaded one—that is, originally redheaded, as they were all charmed to blond right now. Dumbledore didn't know much about him, but he certainly took a lot after his mother. He had her temper and inability to accept reality if it was not to his liking. That was enough to convince the old headmaster that this boy was a fine wizard. Not to mention how easily, according to Olaf Lindberg, he had won his duel with one of the top Ravenclaw students in his year.

And then finally, the most interesting one of them. This boy, son of James Potter and, if Dumbledore's assumptions were correct, Lily Evans—yes, he was a riddle, and a difficult one to solve, too. The strange scar on his forehead, obviously originating from some strong, dark curse—the unexpected ability to protect his mind from Legilimency—and his huge, huge talent for magic, made obvious after the duel with Olaf. Yes, interesting—he had a few theories about young Harry, and even though he couldn't really check to see whether they were correct or not, he suspected that he had to be close.

He certainly had to be of some sort of importance; there were just too many strange things about Harry. And then his frightening resemblance to Tom—it was nothing about his looks, but more about the lack of trust he had for most of the adults and his special powers—but then, he didn't have Tom's coldness and sense of superiority. He wanted to be close with other people just as badly as the young man who later became known by the name of Lord Voldemort, had tried to avoid them.

He felt a shiver running down his spine. Tom was his biggest failure—biggest and with the most significant consequences. All the deaths and this overwhelming fear that seemed to be hanging over the wizarding world—somehow he knew whose doings stood behind it all, even without any proof.

Once again he felt a shiver. He had the same sort of feeling now, about Harry Potter. There was some reason why this boy had a crucial meaning for their whole society. He was not sure whether it was for good or for worse, but he knew that he had to protect him, protect him from some inexplicable danger lurking in the dark. What kind of danger, he didn't know...

* * *

Being as straightforward as she was, Lily wasn't the sort of person who would try to sneak around people she liked. On the first occasion, which came on Sunday just after breakfast, she asked Harry, Ron and Hermione for a minute of private conversation.

They went outside and sat by the lake, since the day was warm and sunny. For a while, they did nothing but enjoyed the fine weather. After some time, Hermione finally asked what Lily wanted to talk about.

Lily, who was lying relaxed on the grass, with her eyes closed and a small smiled plastered to her face, sobered immediately and got to her point without any special introduction. She briefly related to them everything she had been pondering for so long last night and openly asked whether everything they said about themselves was true.

Harry, Ron and Hermione were abashed and just stared at redheaded girl speechlessly for a while. Harry's thoughts were running strange paths at that moment. He didn't know what to say, but part of him was almost relieved at this turn of events. If Lily knew the truth, than there would be one more person who he wouldn't have to lie to about his past and his real feelings. On the other hand, he couldn't predict Lily's reaction. What if she didn't believe him or—even worse—she did and didn't want to have anything to do with Harry afterwards? He was very grateful that she had decided to come and talk openly with them about her doubts instead of investigating the answers or discussing the matter with some of her other friends.

If Lily was at first not fully convinced whether her suspicions were justified, she had no more doubts. The expressions on their faces clearly indicated that they were guilty as charged. Seeing that, she folded her arms on her chest and waited with her eyebrows raised for an answer.

As usually, it was Hermione who spoke in the end.

"Look, Lily—you are right, there are things about us, which you don't know—I guess it wasn't very hard to come to this conclusion after yesterday..." She paused for a moment, and both Harry and Ron could almost see the wheels turning inside of her head. She was obviously not sure what to say yet and how much she should reveal, and tried to gain some time before she came up with suitable explanation.

"The problem is—I don't really know what to say..." she confessed at last. Lily looked slightly annoyed with this as she replied, "How about the truth?"

Hermione winced. "We can't..." she began in a small voice, but before she could continue, Lily interrupted her, shouting with visible anger as her temper got better of her.

"Fine! Just fine with me! I thought you trusted me! I trusted you! I thought we were friends!" She took a deep breath. "But very well! If you don't give a damn about me, then I'm not going to give a damn about you!" The longer she shouted, more furious she got. Harry, Ron and Hermione were surprised by her outburst. They all felt very comfortable around Lily, but calling their relationship a "friendship" just after one week seemed a little bit quick to them.

Before she could do or say anything more, Harry grabbed her hand, looking her straight into eyes.

"You are right, Lily. We shouldn't keep it all from you, but the problem is that for some reason, we have to. We are not the only people that the truth concerns." He tried to speak reasonably, but it clearly didn't appeal to Lily. She stopped shouting, but took her hand out of Harry's grasp.

"And what is so important about you that you can't share it with others? You're just normal teenagers, after all!" she said sarcastically.

Harry was tempted to reply, "No, we're not!" but instead, he spoke calmly.

"Please, don't be angry, Lily. I really can't tell you much—but if you want, I can tell you some parts of it..." he looked at her pleadingly. He just couldn't afford losing her sympathy, now that his father already hated him with all his heart.

"Just promise, you want tell anyone."

"Of course I won't!" Lily said indignantly.

"Good!" he smiled at her warmly. "I guess the first thing I can tell you is that we aren't really siblings..."

"Harry!" Hermione's sudden scream made him break eye contact with his mother. He suddenly realized that Hermione and Ron were assuming that he was about to come up with another story. How wrong they were!

"In fact, we aren't related at all, apart from the fact that we're friends from school. Due to some circumstances, which I really can't reveal, we had to leave our previous school and move here—I can't give you any details, Lily, but trust me, I would like to, if it didn't put my family in danger."

Lily was astonished. It was obvious that she found it hard to believe what Harry had just said.

"Look, you have to believe me!" Harry was not going to give up. "Dumbledore knows about it—he was the one who made most of arrangements..." Lily turned her head few times as she looked at each of them for some time. Then one thought struck her—Harry had to be telling her the truth—or at least some part of it—why else would Hermione try to stop him?

"I believe you," she almost whispered.

"Good!" Harry grinned widely. Hermione also smiled slightly and it looked odd, because her forehead was still frowning. Ron also seemed relieved, but he had to make sure once again that Lily was not going to tell anyone about anything she had just heard. She assured him that no, she had no intention of revealing their secrets to anyone.

They spent rest of the morning together by the lake, explaining some of the details of their situation, but avoiding mentioning anything concerning time-traveling and, of course, hiding their true surnames.

Harry was sure that this morning was going to be one of his happiest memories.


	11. Chapter 11

**Disclaimer: **Dudli-dudli-doobee-doo. Lalalalalalalala. Yabadabada.

**Author note: **I received exactly two answers for my question: one for and one against posting personal answers for reviews, which is not exactly making the decision easy. Anyway, if you care about this, than let me know, because I'm not sure what to do.

Well, this is another short chapter, but as it is only two days after the previous one, I don't really feel guilty. Next one will be back to normal length and probably will come in about a week.

Now, one question I received: why isn't anybody suspicious about Harry's eyes and looks? Well, it's again question for the third chapter and all the preparations they had before the school year began, which were terribly boring for me to write, so I just skipped through them. Harry's and Ron's appearances were slightly altered to avoid problems, so he's not very similar to James now. And his eyes – well they are green, but there are plenty of people with green eyes (maybe not in reality, but in books certainly yes ;) ), so I don't really see the problem.

And as usually: THANKS FOR ALL THE REVIEWS!

**Author note 2:** Huge thanks to Aln-Mai, another chapter is user-friendly now:)

**Chapter 11**

After the conversation by the lake, thinks got better for Harry. Being now sure of his mother's sympathy, he was getting less affected by his father and Sirius' obvious contempt towards him.

Not that he didn't care. Oh no, he still desperately wanted to gain their respect and acceptation, only that he didn't really know how. Marauders considered him a coward and cowardice was the worst thing for a Gryffindor to be accused of.

The easiest way to achieve his goal would be revealing the duel he had with Lindberg, but somehow Harry didn't want to do this. It would be truly irresponsible, as he had no guarantee that Marauders would keep it quiet afterwards. And, wanting to continue their education, they simply had to keep the low profile. Coming to think about it, it was quite irresponsible to let Lily watch the duel in the first place. But, of course, he didn't regret that.

Another reason for not telling James about this was that Harry didn't want to be accepted for some stupid duel with some stupid wizard. He got enough of this kind of stuff back home, not to care for this any longer. He hated all the attention he got because he was famous, people sending him love letters only because his picture happened to appear on the front cover of Daily Prophet.

Maybe it wasn't exactly the same thing, but Harry felt that if his father started to like him, because he beaten the teacher, it would be similar. When it came to people he was close with, he wanted to be recognised not for fame or even his accomplishments, but for the person he was underneath all this.

Anyway, he was pretty sure, that even if Marauders started to respect him, it wouldn't change his situation much. James would still hate him, simply because of his friendship with Lily.

The red-headed girl spent even more time with the trio now, not only during the lessons, but also after them and during the meals. They learned together, had fun together and Harry was absolutely happy about this.

They were also occasionally joined by other Gryffindors, mostly Hermione's and Lily's dorm-mates – Alice, Lea and Heather.

Lea was a source of freshest gossip and she was very funny person to be with, even if sometimes a little too loud for Harry's taste. She wanted to be a singer or model when she grew up, so she constantly checked if her hair and make up were okay. Harry and Ron started betting on what hair colour she would wear the next day.

Alice and Heather on the other hand, where mostly talking about quidditch and Ron found a lot of topics to discuss with two girls. Heather was not spending too much time with them though, as she was to busy 'making sure that there wasn't even one broom closet in the school, where she hadn't snogged at least twice' as Lea claimed. Well, certainly she was with her boyfriend most of the time.

Harry and Lily played chess a lot – after all, they started their friendship during that game. Ron usually watched and laughed whenever either of them made some stupid move. He tried to play with almost everybody in Gryffindor – apart from Marauders – and had yet to find a match for himself.

Overall, they were slowly starting to be much more accustomed with their situation. They rarely talked about home, although they missed their families and friends. Whenever something happened that reminded them of someone they left behind, they would suddenly stop smiling and be silent for a while.

**

* * *

**

The lessons during the second week weren't really different from the first week of school.

Transfiguration was exhausting and extremely difficult. They were working on summoning spells, which meant creating a totally new object with magic. The process itself was very similar to vanishing something, only backward. They started with matches, just as in their first year and still, apart from few Ravenclaws, Lily, Hermione, Remus, James and Sirius, no one managed to summon a match for longer than few seconds.

Two handsome Marauders used transfiguration as an occasion to show off. Everything that McGonnagal required them to do, came to them as naturally as if they knew the spells before, which probably was the case. With bored expressions on their faces, they played gobstones by summoning and vanishing them. They also complained few times, that they expected NEWT level class to be more challenging, then spells, which even a first year would do. Peter watched his friends with awe, while Remus was still working on his match.

To Harry's astonishment, McGonnagal seemed oblivious to this and simply let them be. He was also a little disgusted by their behaviour. Hermione, who also had everything right, simply helped Ron and Harry, instead of keeping her nose stuck up in the air. Same applied to Lily, who had currently moved to sit with Alice and corrected her pronunciation of the incantation. Harry wondered, why neither of James nor Sirius tried to help Peter, and in the end Remus did, as soon as he was finished.

Charms followed the similar pattern, only that here Lily and Hermione were usually faster than Marauders. Flitwick was also less patient with their attitude and even substracted some points from Gryffindor for interrupting the lesson.

Probably the biggest comedy were potions. They did literally nothing, and the classes changed into the prank-war between Marauders and certain greasy-haired Slytherin, who was probably the only person in the class trying to work.

Harry, Ron and Hermione were easily the best students in their year, which they found quite amusing. Lily was glad, when they taught her everything they new, even if it was only the OWL level – she still was far behind them.

Harry and Ron would probably be perfectly happy ignoring the subject, but of course Hermione made them work, with a threat, that when they come back, Snape will be more than happy to throw them out from his NEWT-level course, seeing that they knew nothing. So, they produced different concoctions amusing themselves with watching the havoc around them.

Throughout all the lessons, Marauders usually sat at the back of the classroom, to be able to do anything they wanted without teachers noticing. Lily and Hermione preferred to sit in the front, so they were divided by whole classroom length.

It didn't really bother Sirius, who was constantly trying to get Hermione's attention. It started on transfiguration, when Hermione's match suddenly started growing leaves and changed into a miniature of crimson rose. Hermione ignored it though, probably thinking that she made a mistake with her charm and transfigured it back into the match.

Soon enough she learned, that it wasn't her mistake, as strange events started to happen around her more often.

Once a short note appeared, telling her that she was Venus, goddess of beauty, incarnated. Or she found her quill transfigured into a much more beautiful one, bigger and with golden edges. Or a chocolate frog she was about to eat, turned into the real, alive one and started singing 'Kiss me, I'm your prince'.

She was not sure what to make of this. She guessed very quickly, that person responsible for those little tricks was Sirius. Whenever she turned back in her desk after another of small presents appeared, she would see the handsome Marauder casting her flirtatious look or winking at her with a smile.

She was not really sure how to interpret his behaviour, though. If all that Lea Leafdrop said was true, then Sirius was probably trying to bust his ego, by getting the new girl. She wasn't blind, she knew that she was good looking now and she was actually receiving quite a lot of male attention.

Anyway, getting involved with a person, who in reality was twenty years older and, moreover, dead, wasn't one of the things she would do. So she decided to ignore the handsome Marauder, even if he was really sweet. And she didn't tell Ron and Harry about them.

**

* * *

**

On Wednesday morning a sign appeared on the wall in the Gryffindor common room. It was an information about the tryouts for a seeker position in the team.

Harry read it three times and went to breakfast in a very thoughtful mood. He missed quidditch so much and here he had almost no occasion to play or even to fly. Apart from the Saturday morning, he hadn't touched the broom since the beginning of the school year.

Ron asked him what was going on, when he saw his best friend sitting and stirring cold porridge absentmindedly.

'Hello, Harry, anyone home? Knock, knock.' He added, when Harry didn't answer. Few people laughed at that and finally Harry blinked as if he just woke up.

'What?'

'I asked what are you thinking about, bro?'

'Oh... I saw the Quidditch tryout announcement this morning.'

'Oh!' Ron nodded with understanding.

Alice eyes lit up with excitement, when she heard the news.

'Really?' she asked. 'When are they? Tell me?'

'In two weeks, from what I heard.' Lily joined the conversation. 'On Saturday. Going to give it a try?' she asked with a smile.

'Sure!' Alice replied. 'I'd love to be on the team. Can you imagine it, Lily?' she forgot about her food completely and started to recall how she used to dream about being a professional player when she was a kid. 'Not a usual dream for a three year old girl.' She finished with a happy laugh.

Everybody laughed as well and then Pat Parmesano, who was sitting with them this morning, asked:

'Anyone else here is going to try as well?'

Harry shook his head sadly to that. He would love to, but it was impossible. Others did the same and Lily asked with a playful grin:

'And you, Pat?' the fat Italian boy grinned back mischievously and replied:

'Of course. You know, I'm perfectly built for the seeker. The bigger the seeker is, the bigger chance that snitch will be close to him!' A gale of laughter followed the chubby boy's statement. Harry had to admit, that it was a nice trait, which Pat possessed – to be able to laugh from yourself.

Soon the happy mood was interrupted by the arrival of mail. Needless to say, that they didn't get any letters. Who would write to them? Only Hermione, who decided to spend her pocket money on Prophet subscription, was now holding the newspaper.

'Harry! Ron! Oh my, look!' she shouted suddenly, her face pale.

They immediately saw what had caused her sudden anxiety. On the cover of newspaper, there was a large article about the Voldemort's attack. Harry read the text quickly and paled as well. There were several murders previous night and all took place in Hogsmead. Bodies were found in terrible state and there was a two year old child among killed. There was nothing about the Dark Mark though and a name "Death Eaters" wasn't mentioned even once.

Maybe Voldemort is not calling his followers like this yet? Harry wondered.

There were murmurs around the Great Hall – obviously everyone was now reading the news. Harry looked around the table. Most of people had eyes opened wide with terror and looked sickened by the terrible event.

Few students went out and Harry wasn't really sure, whether it was because they were genuinely sick and needed to go to toilet, or because they wanted to write to his parents and assure them they were all right. Probably both.

Suddenly Harry noticed a group of students who actually seemed more like agitated or excited then scared. There were few students in the Slytherin table sitting around Snape and discussing something with a growing heat. Then Harry noticed a younger boy looking very much like Sirius, smiling cruelly. It must be Regulus Black.

Harry subconsciously turned to look at Sirius and he saw the usually relaxed Marauder sitting with clenched fists, his eyes boiling with anger and hate and directed on his brother. James was whispering something to him and suddenly two boys stood up and left The Great Hall. Whatever they were up to, Harry was sure that it had something to do with the article and with the smug expressions of few Slytherins.


	12. Chapter 12

**Disclaimer: **I suppose I wrote this enough times that everybody know now for sure, that the wonderful world of Harry Potter doesn't belong to me.

**Author note:** Then next chapter will probably be delayed – it will appear in about two weeks. I have an immense project to do for my studies, blah. Believe me, I'd love to write the next chappie instead:/

AND MOST IMPORTANT: THANKS FOR ALL THE REVIEWS! You guys are so great: I have over 100 reviews! Wow! Thanks! Wow! Ah! Ah! :)))))))))))

**Author note 2:**Thanks to Aln-Mai for helping with this awful thing called spelling. And another awful thing called grammar.

**Chapter 12**

James tried to calm down his best friend and followed him out of the Great Hall. Sirius was going so fast that James had to almost run to keep up with him.

"Padfoot! Calm down! You're overreacting!" Sirius turned back so abruptly that James bumped into him.

"Sorry..." he mumbled. Sirius glared at him angrily.

"Overreacting? I'M OVERREACTING?! What would you know about it! YOU have a nice, decent family, Prongs! You don't know what it's like to have parents sending you a letter each month to tell you that you'll be disinherited if you don't support this bloody murderer! You don't have a Slytherin brother who sat there all happy because some people got killed! You don't have a cousin and her fiancée who probably were there, throwing _Avada Kedavras_ left and right! So DON'T tell me that I'm overreacting!"

James took a step back, abashed by Sirius' outburst. He didn't really know how to comfort his friend, but he was sure that if Sirius was enraged like that, nothing good could possibly come of it.

"I'm not saying that nothing happened, but the way you are acting now, you'll probably end killing someone yourself! You can't think properly when you're angry like this, Padfoot!"

Sirius scowled. His eyes were flashing dangerously, and he spoke with a low, cold voice.

"If I could, I would kill the person responsible, James."

James stared at his friend, bewildered. The fact that he used his name instead of his nickname was enough to convince him that Sirius meant what he had said. Yet, to hear him claiming that he would KILL someone, just like that—some of his apprehension had to be visible on his face, because Sirius continued with a sneer.

"Surprised? You shouldn't be. With the upbringing I got, I'm expected to be able to cast a killing curse without blinking an eye."

James groaned inwardly. He thought they were over this!

When Sirius was sorted to Gryffindor instead of Slytherin, James had needed much more time than the others to accept him. His father was an Auror, and he was educated not to trust members of families known to be Dark. Of course, the Black family fit quite nicely into that group.

It was probably the reason why their bond had grown so strong. It took them more than half a year to overcome the prejudices each of them had toward each other, but in the end, they learned to trust and respect each other. As a wise man had once said, true friendship can only be proven in times of misery, and it certainly applied to them.

And it was only few weeks after their relationship had started to be civil when James learned something about Sirius that never ceased to surprise him. Behind the mask of smugness, superiority and high self-esteem, Sirius was scared. He was truly scared that he would turn Dark just as every single member of his family had. He believed that being raised as he was, he was already Dark deep inside. And Sirius hated Dark magic more than anything.

Whenever he did something that he considered Dark, he would be remorseful for days. He would try to tell his friends that he actually was not worth their attention, their kindness. And it took a lot of effort to convince him that it wasn't true. Because Sirius did not trust himself.

James was unhappy to see that the murder in Hogsmeade had thrown his friend back into his old mindset. He looked at him sternly, choosing his words carefully.

"You can't feel responsible for—for what your family approves of. They raised you to believe in this rubbish, but you made your choice and that is enough. And you showed everybody that you truly meant it when you stood up to your mother the way you did! So stop this rant now!" He paused and looked at the other boy hesitantly.

Sirius met his gaze with even more bitterness than before.

"You just don't get it, Prongs, you just don't get it! I don't care what my family approves of or not! But when I see my brother there, smirking as if Christmas came early, then I just—I can't stand it! Bloody hell, they not only approve this "Mudblood-pureblood" rubbish, but also kill for it! So just tell me—tell me why shouldn't I feel murderous?"

The question hung in the air between them. James finally voiced the only thing that came to his mind.

"Well, you don't know for sure if they took part in it..."

"God, James! Of course they did! How would my brother know about everything otherwise?"

"From the _Prophet_, for example?" James retorted sarcastically.

"Please, James, spare me that. He knew it before the mail came! I was wondering why he was so cheerful the entire morning!"

James looked at him, puzzled.

"No—it doesn't make sense, Padfoot. If he knew before the mail came, then it wasn't your parents or cousins who told him."

Sirius blinked in surprise and then nodded slowly in acknowledgement.

"You're right..." he said thoughtfully. "They wouldn't tell him before the attack; he has too big a mouth to be trusted with secrets—and if he didn't know it because of them, it would've had to have happened before the mail came today. So—who told him? It must have been someone from Hogwarts, Prongs—someone from Hogwarts knew BEFORE!

They looked at each other and the decision was made within the moments. They were certainly going to find out. No more words were needed between the two friends.

* * *

Harry fought the urge to follow his father and godfather out of the Great Hall. Somehow, when he saw them so distressed, he forgot about all the hard feelings between him and them. It was nice to see them so angry with someone else for a change, but it was even better to know that they were actually bothered by the attacks.

Harry looked after them and than turned back to his housemates. Hermione and Ron were pale and speechless, still affected by the grim news. Lily read the article rapidly, her lips moving slightly.

And for the first time since his birthday, Harry started to think about Voldemort.

Thrown out of his time, he felt oddly safe, because here the Dark Lord knew nothing about him, nothing at all. In year 1976 he was not the Boy Who Lived—he was nobody. And he liked that.

The murders had thrown him out of this blissful illusion. Suddenly, he found himself dreading everything that had yet to come. The killings and terror. His parents' death. Cedric's death. And Sirius...

He looked around with terror in his eyes, and Lily noticed.

"Everything all right, Harry?" she asked in concerned voice.

Harry turned around and gazed at her for a brief moment, until he nodded slowly, comforted by her presence.

Although he wouldn't really admit it, he was more than just happy to have her—his mother—even if she didn't know he was her son. He only hoped that maybe he could build a similar relationship with his father and Sirius.

Hermione and Ron would probably be startled if they learned that Harry didn't want to go back home. Not at all.

* * *

Hermione played with her quill absentmindedly. It was a DADA lesson and quite an interesting one as well. During the first half, Lindberg had covered ways of protecting oneself from dragons and went through the complicated shields that were impenetrable by dragon fire. Hermione had never heard of them before, so she listened eagerly.

The second part of the lesson, however, was much less involving. Lindberg intended to teach them to duel properly, and different students were taking turns practicing while rest of the class was supposed to look for mistakes. It was rather boring, as the duels were rather slow and very primitive compared to what they did during DA meetings last year.

So, after few minutes of attempting to concentrate, Hermione let her thoughts drift away. She was mostly wondering about how the events in Hogsmeade had affected the students.

The attacks, since they had occurred in such close proximity to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, had a significant influence on the rules at Hogwarts. The Hogsmeade trips were cancelled, and students were forbidden to leave the castle unless accompanied by an adult. It meant that there had to be a teacher present during all the Quidditch practices, and if lesson took place outside, students had to wait for an adult to pick them up from the entrance and walk them to the greenhouses or other places they needed to go.

As if to make the new arrangements even more unbearable, the weather was as beautiful as it could be in the first days of autumn. The sun shone brightly, and leaves had started to turn gold. It was warm and welcoming and every student shared the feeling that it was very unlikely for anything dangerous to happen to them outside.

Yet, of course, they all understood the gravity of situation. They accepted the new regulations without the protest, even if they were very strict. Hermione didn't think it was because everybody was so mature or sensible. The problem was that they were truly scared. More than once during last few days, Hermione had to help Lily calm down some of the younger students, who were reacting hysterically because a letter from their parents had not arrived on time, or because they'd had a bad dream.

Hermione looked out of the window and wondered grimly if it was the same in their time, with Voldemort back to power. Had anyone else been killed? Were people as afraid as they were here?

Suddenly the sharp voice of Professor Lindberg brought her back to reality.

"Miss Bradley! Would you kindly answer my question?"

Hermione stared at the teacher as if she had just noticed him, which wasn't far from the truth.

"Sorry, sir, could you, um—repeat your question?" she stuttered quietly.

"Why should I, Miss Bradley?" He turned to the class in general. "I believe I made it clear that it is essential that you concentrate during this lesson. Miss Evans! Can you repeat my question, so that your friend could answer it?" He demanded with a sneer.

"Professor Lindberg wanted to know what could have saved Helen from Pat's last curse," Lily replied and cast her friend a worried look. It wasn't normal for Hermione to not listen to the teacher.

"Um..." Hermione shifted in her chair uncomfortably. She had no idea, as she hadn't paid any attention to the fight.

"A—dodge?" she guessed.

"Honestly, Miss Bradley! Have you spent entire lesson in a dreamland? Did you even watch the duel?"

Hermione felt her cheeks go red with embarrassment. She shook her head slightly.

"Very well!" She could hear that Lindberg was really angry. "That means detention! I don't really understand how can you have such a careless attitude toward this subject, Miss Bradley, especially since the recent events which certainly showed how important it is to be able to defend yourself. Now, on with the lesson..."

Hermione sat unhappily while Lindberg continued with the analysis of the strong and weak points of Pat Parmesano's and Helen Figlet's (Hufflepuff) dueling technique.

Hermione was rarely criticized by teachers and Lindberg's harsh words had really upset her. She was scribbling angrily in her notebook when suddenly she noticed that nice, straight letters had started to appear on the paper. Sirius!

**_Hey, smile, detention is not the end of the world!_** Normally, Hermione just ignored Sirius' more or less subtle attempts to catch her attention. But this time, it was really nice that someone was comforting her. She smiled and whispered a spell quietly, making her writing visible on Sirius' parchment as well.

_Thanks. I'm just not used to someone snapping at me like that, that's all, _she replied.

_**Oh, I see. Well, that's the drawback of being home tutored, I guess.**_

_Yes, maybe..._ Hermione didn't want to talk about her past or home; she didn't like lying, and knew that less she spoke, the smaller risk of slipping up there was.

_**Cheer up... I know! Would you like some company for detention? **_

_What?_

_**Just watch!**_

For a moment, nothing happened, but than a strange humming noise filled the classroom. Hermione looked around and noticed that it was coming from Snape. The Slytherin boy rose from his desk and started to sing to some strange melody:

"Nobody likes me, everybody hates me, itsy-bitsy, scrabby-dabby-doo!

I never wash my hair, I scare every girl away, only thing I can properly do...."

At first everybody was just staring at Snape, astonished, but the class soon burst out with laughter. Hermione heard Ron giggling madly behind her. Even some of Slytherins smirked viciously.

Lindberg rose and shouted "_Finite Incantatem!_" Snape stopped singing immediately and fell back into his chair. He was blushing with embarrassment and his fists were clenched.

"Who did that? Tell me at once, or you will all have detention for the rest of the week!" Lindberg's voice was cold with fury. His class had been interrupted for the second time in one day! All the laughs stopped at once and the students started to pretend that they knew nothing and hadn't found the joke amusing at all. Then Sirius stood up and spoke in a relaxed, smug manner.

"I believe it was me, sir." Everybody turned around and stared at the handsome boy, who smirked with his arms folded on his chest.

"Mr. Black! I expected better of you! Detention! For the whole week!" Lindberg was shouting now in uncontrolled rage. Sirius only nodded and sat back down, unperturbed by the teacher's outburst.

The lesson continued and Hermione started to write another note.

_You are mad!_

_**Some think so—but you should know that a week of detention is worth one evening in detention with you...**_

_You are insane! And do you have to treat Snape like that? I mean, what did he do to you?_

_**Snivelly? It would take years to tell! But it's enough to look at him, to get a good impression—slimy, greasy—ah, I apologize, I shouldn't speak like that in presence of such a charming lady. Let's change the subject, what were you thinking about?**_

_What do you mean?_

_**What were you thinking about, when you weren't listening to Lindberg before?**_

_Oh, nothing important, really._

_**I see, you don't want to tell me. OK. I don't mind. I don't mind at all...**_

_I can tell you if you have to know. I was thinking about fear. And about the attacks. And about the future..._

_**Ah, very serious matters. Are you afraid of what's going to happen?**_

_Sort of. It's rather complicated—are you?_

_**I guess I'm more afraid of what I will do than what will happen to me, if you know what I mean...**_

Hermione shivered when she read that. Poor Sirius, if he only knew—if he only knew how terrible things were going to happen to him, he wouldn't write that—but ,of course, she had to pretend that she knew nothing about the future...

_Yes, I know._

_**But maybe that's because I have less to lose than others, because I don't really care.**_

_What do you mean by "less to lose than others"?_

_**Nobody told you? My family is as pure-blooded as they come, so I don't really risk losing it—not that I would mind that much, to be honest... **_

The bell rang and interrupted their conversation. Hermione and Sirius stayed behind, because they had to learn what their detention was. Lindberg only told them to come to his office at eight o'clock in the evening and dismissed them. He obviously didn't want to deal with them any more than he had to, so they left the classroom in a rush.

Ron, Lily and Harry were waiting for Hermione outside, and James stood there as well. Two rather unfriendly groups of teenagers walked in the opposite directions from the classroom, except for when Sirius turned back and waved to Hermione.

"See you in the evening!"


	13. Chapter 13

**Disclaimer:** Hail to J.K. Rowling!

**Author note:** Hah! Finally! New chapter! Sorry for the long wait.

THANKS FOR REVIEWS! I LOVE YOU GUYS!

**Author note:** Thanks to Aln-Mai:)

**Chapter 13**

Ron eyed Hermione suspiciously for the remaining part of the afternoon. Was it only his impression, or did she really look rather—happy? And what was all this with Sirius about? After all, they (Hermione, Harry, Lily, and himself) and the Marauders didn't get along, so why would Sirius suddenly talk to Hermione? Was she hiding something from them?

Ron felt that he couldn't simply go and ask Hermione straight away what was going on with her and Sirius. What if she thought that he was asking because he was—well, interested in her or something? Which, of course wasn't true (or at least, that's what Ron kept telling himself), but it would be simply horrible if Hermione thought something like that...

Well, of course, if he was to talk with her about it, he certainly needed an explanation why was he even bothered that Sirius had—well, _noticed_ Hermione.

It was, Ron reasoned to himself, only because of Harry. Yes. Harry would be really hurt if Sirius started to like Hermione all of sudden and kept ignoring Harry. Yes, it would definitely hurt his feelings. And so, as a good and condescending friend, he had to demand that Hermione stop flirting with that brat...

Ron shook his head in surprise. Had he just thought that?

Somehow the mere idea of Hermione flirting with the handsome Marauder got him annoyed. It just didn't feel right: Sirius and Hermione. Apart from the age difference, it was totally, absolutely wrong. After he had it all more or less worked out in his head, he decided to go and talk with her.

Not the way he did last time, though—that wouldn't do. He had been so furious to discover that she had gone to the Yule Ball with Victor Krum—he yelled at her and let his temper get the better of him. Oh, no. This time he would be calm and reasonable, and he would convince her that she shouldn't start anything with Sirius. For Harry's sake.

He stood up and walked over to her. She was currently sitting with Lily, and they chatted quietly. They didn't giggle like most of the girls did, but despite that Ron was almost sure that they were gossiping anyhow. Was it about him? Or about Sirius? Ron shook his head in defiance when that last thought ran through his head.

"Um, Hermione, would you mind—I—um, could we talk privately for a minute?" he asked bluntly.

Hermione raised her head and looked at her best friend, surprised. It was very unlike Ron to stutter like that when he simply wanted to talk with her. Normally, he would drag her somewhere and talk, not even bothering to see whether she had time or not. He didn't have very good manners, but Hermione preferred their relationship the way it was—spontaneous and natural.

Of course, she agreed and they headed to Room of Requirement. Their trio had a small quarrel a few days before about it—Harry had wanted to tell Lily about their hiding place, while Hermione thought it would be good for them to have a place only for themselves if they ever needed to talk about things which they couldn't share with anyone.

In the end, Hermione managed to convince Harry, and so now they had a perfect spot for an occasion like now.

While they walked, Hermione immersed herself in thought, and Ron had the impression that she didn't really want to talk with him. Now, when he was about to start the conversation, he felt nervous. _Calm down!_ he ordered himself. _You have good points and she is going to listen to them. Nothing wrong with that!_

Finally they got to the Room of Requirement. They sat down on comfortable cushions which the Room produced for them. Hermione looked at her friend expectantly. Ron was fidgeting and avoided looking back until he had found the courage to begin.

"You see, Hermione—it's just—I noticed..." _Ron, get a grip on yourself!_ "Well, I wanted to talk about you and Sirius."

Hermione blinked in surprise, her mind racing. Had he noticed his presents? Or their conversation in DADA today? She felt a treacherous blush on her cheeks, but despite that she responded calmly.

"What about me and Sirius?"

"It's just—I noticed you, uh, get along and I just thought it's not very good, because—you know, for Harry..." He had a feeling it was going lamely. Where were those perfect arguments he was supposed to tell her now?

"What do you mean by 'not very good'? I think it's very good! Haven't you noticed how badly Harry wants to win his father's and Sirius' acceptance? I think it's perfect that at least one of us starts getting along with them!"

"Yes, but I just thought—you know, that he might be jealous that they prefer you over him..."_Now, that was good!_ Ron smiled inwardly, sure that she would listen to his argument.

"Please, Ron! That's stupid. Honestly, Harry won't be jealous. What for?"

"Come on, Hermione! You said it yourself! He wants their acceptance so much, and suddenly he sees that they find no problem with accepting you while they treat him like dirt!"

"But that's exactly the point! If Sirius and I become friends, than I can convince him to accept Harry as well!"

Ron looked at her as if she was daft.

"Come on! Sirius is not trying to become your friend! He wants to..." Ron's voice trailed off, while Hermione spoke coldly with fake smile which Ron had learned to recognize as a sign of approaching fury.

"Yes, Ron? What does he want?"

Ron flinched back under her gaze.

"I—well, you know..."

"No Ron, I don't know. You started, so finish!"

"Um—you know, he doesn't exactly have the reputation of a decent guy..."

Hermione blinked.

"Ron, what are you talking about? That he's a player? That he can't keep a girlfriend for longer than a week? I know it, Ron! I don't need you to tell me what to do, OK? I'm not going to fall for him! I mean, he's twenty years older in our time! And DEAD! So stop treating me like Ginny!"

It was Ron's turn to blink in surprise. He asked before he could stop himself.

"What do you mean 'like Ginny'?"

"You remember your reaction when you heard that she was dating Michael Corner? You were acting as if you were going to kill that guy!"

"And I was right, if you don't remember, he turned out to be a total git!"

"Please, Ron! That's beside the point! What I mean is that it's my decision, OK? If I decide to date Sirius—which I'm not going to do, mind you!—then I date him, and it's my business."

"No, it's not! Because if you date him, then it proves that you don't know what you're doing! Just like it was with Krum! Do you really want a guy so much?" Ron shouted and immediately wished that he had bitten his tongue that time, seeing Hermione's face turn a dark shade of purple from fury.

Without another word, she ran from the Room of Requirement, slamming the door behind her. Ron sat down and just stared at the wall numbly.

* * *

Sirius was in a good mood as he headed to Professor Lindberg's office, for his first detention that week. He didn't mind detention, not too much. Lindberg used to favor him and James in the past, so he expected it to be rather pleasant. Maybe he would simply make him read a book or something of that sort. Certainly spending an evening in Hermione Bradley's company and pranking Snape was worth it.

He sat at the window seat opposite the door to Lindberg's classroom and waited for Hermione. He didn't want go in before her, because Lindberg would probably use it as an opportunity to lecture him about being irresponsible or something. Sirius would rather avoid it.

Soon enough he heard footsteps and spotted Hermione. She seemed irritated and was muttering something to herself—as if one part of her were arguing with the other. She apparently didn't see him. She went past him straight to the doors and was about to knock, when Sirius said loudly, "Sickle for your thoughts..."

She turned around abruptly, startled.

"You scared me!" she exclaimed.

"Sorry! I didn't mean to—what happened? You seem angry," he remarked gently and moved to stand very close to her. He was more than a head taller than she was, so she had to look up to see his expression. There was a nervous feeling in her stomach when he was so near, so she took a step back and shrugged her shoulders.

"It's nothing, my brother's just being a prat..."

"Oh? What did he do?" It sounded almost as if he wanted to add "this time" and only stopped himself at the last moment.

It occurred to Hermione that there was a considerable chance that Sirius thought that by "brother" she meant Harry, and it wouldn't work with her plan of making Sirius accept him. So she corrected herself.

"Oh, you know—nothing important really—Ron has a quick temper and he speaks before he thinks sometimes."

"Ron, huh?" Sirius said, which confirmed Hermione's suspicions. "Well, that's the way it goes, you know—at least you're talking to your brother," he added bitterly.

"Well, not now," she replied with a smirk.

"Right. We're late, so we'd better go in," Sirius said and knocked.

"Enter!" was heard from inside, so Sirius opened the door for Hermione and followed her the length of the classroom and into Lindberg's office.

"Very well, I see you're both here," Lindberg said, not even raising his head from the tests and other papers he was marking.

"Look, I have a lot of work to do, so you just sit down there and get busy with something. I would suggest that you to do some homework," he said, pointing at a small table near the opposite wall.

Sirius and Hermione sat obediently. There was some spare parchment there, as well as two quills and a bottle of ink. Hermione took a roll of parchment and started to write her Transfiguration essay—or as much of it as she could without any textbooks. Suddenly, Sirius shoved the other piece of parchment in her direction.

_**Don't tell me you're going to actually do homework! It's Friday evening, time to party! To have fun with friends!**_

She read the note and smiled.

_Well, I don't really see any party going on around here._

_**You don't? Well, I've got to organize one, then!**_

_No! Don't get yourself into more trouble! Lindberg will be livid!_

Sirius grinned when he saw her answer.

_**Ah, beautiful lady! Don't worry! I'm not afraid of danger, risk and Lindberg's fury, when the reward is your smile!**_

Hermione blushed a little and shook her head. Was he trying to charm her?

_You're flattering me, kind sir._

_**Well—so, if we agreed on the matter of party, I suppose it's time for me to ask you for a dance then, milady! **_

Hermione shook her head again. He was crazy!

_A dance? Haven't you forgotten about something?_

_**Well, do you mean music?**_

_Yes._

_**Is it absolutely necessary to have a dance?**_

Hermione blinked, bewildered.

_I suppose so._

_**My fair lady, what is dancing about?**_

Hermione was more and more surprised by every new message he wrote. Where was this conversation heading?

_Dancing? Well, it's about moving your body to the sounds of music..._

_**How unromantic! Hermione, please don't tell me things like this! Dancing is about holding a person you like close to yourself, it's about a touch, a feeling—music is helpful, but not necessary!**_

Hermione readthe message twice through, trying to grasp its meaning. What was he implying? That she should throw herself into his arms here, in detention, because of some imaginary party? Exactly what kind of girl did he think she was? Some flirt ready to go and shag him, because he said so?

Contrary to what Ron had said, she was not desperate to get a guy and certainly she was not going to let Sirius 'hold her close, touch and feel.' She'd known him for only two weeks! (At least this version of Sirius, she corrected immediately). She toyed with the parchment for a while, uncertain as to what she should write, and unaware of the fact that Sirius was watching her intently.

Finally she gave him back the parchment with a simple answer.

_I don't feel like dancing today, then.

* * *

_

That night, Hermione did not want to talk to Ron, so she decided to read a book in the dormitory rather then risk meeting him in the common room. Harry and Ron were nowhere to be seen. In fact, Ron was still in the Room of Requirement, trying to think of some way to apologize to Hermione without telling her that she had been right. He was not a diplomat, so for him it was a painfully difficult task.

Harry was in the library, reading a book. He hadn't been able to find his friends, so he just read on and on and forgot about the world around him.

It felt as if there were a saddening charm in the air in the Gryffindor tower. Most of the people were still in shock after the Wednesday events.

Usually, it was the Marauders who would try to cheer up everybody in the situation like that, but Sirius returned from the detention with an unexpectedly bad humor and went straight to bed, not in the mood to fool around.

Without Sirius, the other boys didn't feel like having fun, so they just sat near the fireplace and talked quietly—so unlike them.

Lily, who was studying with Alice, looked at them every now and then. She felt a little guilty whenever she looked at James. In the past, he had never ignored her the way he was now. No matter what she did, he would still come and bother her soon afterwards.

But then, why did she care? That was what she had wanted, after all! She had found far more interesting people than James and his friends to keep her company.

Harry—her thoughts wandered to the boy, as was happening a lot now. He was so—ideal!

Not bossy and stuck-up like James, but nice and gentle and caring. He was also brave and handsome—well, in a way, he was. And they had so many topics to talk about.

Harry knew how to listen, no matter what she was talking about—her past in Hogwarts or Petunia—he was equally interested and even asked questions about some details, unlike so many other boys, who would just start bragging about Quidditch and what great players they were.

_Yes_, she thought, looking one last time at James. _Harry was absolutely the most interesting guy she had met so far._


	14. Chapter 14

**Disclaimer:** Nothing mine, blah, blah, blah....

**Author note:** I am REALLY REALLY REALLY very sorry for not updating sooner. I had some sort of block and just couldn't make myself write anything. Anyway, I'm over it now, so I shall start up updating regularly again, hopefully. Once again – I'm sorry.

Now, one thing I wanted to say – I'm very grateful for any suggestions I receive concerning this fanfiction, but I have plot already planned, at least most of it. So, it's rather improbable that I will actually use any of your ideas. I hope no one feels offended by that.

Anyway – thank you very much for ALL the reviews and comments – they are just priceless to me:)

**Author note 2:**Chapter edited, thanks to Aln-Mai:)

**Chapter 14**

Hermione was in a rather bad mood when she came back from the detention. First Ron and then Sirius—honestly, what a terrible day!

She sunk into the soft armchair next to Lily Evans and closed her eyes, sighing deeply.

After her refusal to flirt with Sirius, the handsome Marauder had started to ignore her and only looked at her very coldly from time to time. The rest of the detention—more than two hours—passed in some sort of tension. Lindberg, oblivious to anything going on, simply kept them there until he had finished checking whatever he was checking.

Hermione tried to write her Transfiguration essay, but she couldn't concentrate, and when she was finally free to go, she felt exhausted as if she just had a very tiring Potions class with Snape.

Sirius didn't say a word to her and rushed out of the office, not bothering with letting her through the door first, his gentleman-like manners gone. Somehow, it left Hermione disturbed.

Since she was a child, she had always dealt with confusing or difficult situations in one way—she tried to calm down and think about everything with a cool head. After analyzing different aspects of the problem she chose the best course of action. This system made her feel confident that she was doing the best thing.

Obviously, this sort of system could only work for a well-organized and strong-willed person. Hermione stuck to her decisions, very rarely changing her mind and never without a good reason. She was proud of this even more than of her academic achievements.

Some serious thinking—that was exactly what she needed to do now to sort out her feelings.

She was staring into the fire, immersed in her thoughts, when she felt a gentle touch on her shoulder. She turned and saw that Lily had moved next to her with a friendly smile.

"What's wrong, Hermione?"

"Oh—nothing..." Hermione whispered more to herself than to Lily, because really, nothing had happened—or had it?

Lily just smiled at.

"Sure! And sulking like that is your way of showing cheerfulness?"

Hermione raised her eyes to look at her friend and started to describe everything that had happened that day—the conversation with Ron (although she left out some of the important details) and everything that had happened during the detention. When she was finished, Lily stared at her for a moment, incredulous, and then she burst into fits of laughter.

"But that—that's just priceless. The biggest prat of Hogwarts is finally getting what he deserves! Priceless! I can't believe it!" She paused for a moment and noticed Hermione's half hurt, half-amused expression. "Hermione, I can't believe it bothers you! I mean—what do you care?"

It took a while for the words to sink in, but when they did, Hermione just stared at girl in front of her in wonder. Indeed, what did she care?

Lily didn't wait for an answer. Instead, she continued to talk merrily.

"And Ron? OK, so he said something that hurt you, but that's not a problem. I'm sure he didn't mean that—I think he's just jealous…"

Jealous? What?

Suddenly an awful thought struck Hermione. What if Ron—liked her? What if he really was jealous? It would be perfect explanation for his behavior, both now and in their fourth year, when there was that whole thing with Victor Krum. Hermione didn't like the thought one bit. For her, Ron was a best friend—a brother—and idea of dating him seemed—well, wrong.

Hermione shook her head in defiance as a lump grew in her throat. She wasn't overly emotional, but the fear of losing her best friend because of his infatuation was just too much to take. No! She would not let this happen. She looked at Lily, suddenly terrified.

"Do you really think so?" she asked in a small voice.

Lily noticed that her words, which were supposed to soothe her friend, actually had the opposite effect—but Lily never lied, so she only nodded her head.

"Is that so bad? I mean, he's not really your brother and he's a nice guy…" she trailed off, when she noticed tears in Hermione's eyes.

"Hermione? Tell me, what's wrong?"

Hermione closed her eyes and took few deep breaths to calm down and then started to explain.

"Lily—I—I have never thought about Ron that way—I mean, he's not my brother, but he's LIKE a brother to me. He's my best friend and if he likes me—likes me the way that makes him jealous of other boys, then—it will destroy our friendship…" She paused.

Lily sobered immediately. She was in extraordinarily good mood this evening, but obviously Hermione wasn't. She could see clearly that the girl needed some comforting or even some way of solving the problem.

"You know, Hermione…" she spoke softly, choosing her words carefully. "If it bothers you this much, then maybe you should talk with Ron about it…"

Hermione only shook her head. "You don't know him, Lily. You don't know him as well as I do. He would not admit his feelings openly, even if his life depended on it. He—we already quarreled in the past—once he thought that my cat killed his rat and he refused to talk with me for more than a month. Or when Harry…" she stopped as she realized that she was about to say, "When Harry got into Triwizard Tournament." Of course, she couldn't say anything about that.

"What?" Lily asked.

"Sorry, Lily—it's just—Ron will not talk about it openly. He'll say that I'm imagining things or something like that—and he might be right, you know? I might be imagining things! After all, apart from his reaction to Sirius, I have no reason to think that he likes me…"

Lily gazed pensively into the fire for a long while. Finally, she turned to Hermione again.

"You know, maybe you should try to show Ron that you aren't interested in him. You know, so that he would know about it without having to admit anything. He'll be able to sort things out by himself."

"I was thinking about something like that," Hermione replied slowly. "Only I don't know how to do it! Or, to be more precise, how to do it without pushing him away and destroying our friendship anyway…"

"I have an idea—but I'm not sure if you'll like it—the easiest way would be if some other guy…"

Hermione's head jerked up.

"What do you mean?"

"Oh, you know—if Ron saw that you were interested in someone else, then it would be rather obvious that you aren't interested in him, wouldn't it? And you've got Sirius interested in you. It's not like he's in love or something. He's not capable of it, anyway—it's just his ego that needs to be boosted every two weeks with a new conquest. It wouldn't hurt him or anything. Unless, of course, there's somebody else you like…"

To be honest, Hermione didn't like the idea too much. Somehow, using another person to solve some problems felt wrong to her. But then, Sirius used girls for nothing more than his own pleasure and dumped them as soon as he got bored. Doing something similar to him would be rather—educational for the handsome boy—even if a little cruel as well. Or was it? As far as Hermione could tell, she was nothing more than another trophy-girl Sirius was trying to get—it wasn't as if she would really hurt his feelings, anyway.

Hermione smiled inwardly to herself as she waved away her doubts about the whole plan. It solved both of her problems perfectly—Ron would know that they couldn't be anything more than friends and Sirius would lose his interest in her—after all, he always did, after a week or two with his actual girlfriend. And to be honest, Hermione wouldn't mind dating him for some time. After all, she was fifteen years old, and it was very natural for her to start spending more time with boys, wasn't it?

Hermione turned to Lily and smiled with her most mischievous smile.

The two girls spent the rest of the evening chatting and giggling madly together.

* * *

James woke up Saturday morning in a foul mood. It was raining outside, which meant that their Quidditch practice was not going to be very nice today. But that wasn't the biggest of his problems.

There was the Wednesday attack. He had planned to investigate it with Sirius, but had done nothing about it so far. To be honest, there wasn't much that could be done. They needed some way to learn how the Slytherins were connected to the attacks, but that was easier said than done. And with Sirius busy with the Bradley girl, he was more or less left on his own.

Apart from the Slytherins and their devious ways, there was also his crush on Lily. He was still angry with her for defending that weakling, Harry Bradley—for choosing that worthless boy over him, but not quite as angry as he was before. He had to admit that not talking to Lily wasn't going to help him. No matter what happened, no matter what she did—for James, she was the only one. The most important person in the world. He had to find the way to change her view of him.

James lay lazily in his bed, not eager to get up just yet. Suddenly, a movement outside caught his eye. He raised his head, but the view was blurred because of the rain. He got up and glued his nose to the window, trying to see something.

And than he knew—it was the mysterious flier, the one they had seen the other morning. He observed him quietly for a short while—then a movement behind him caught his attention. He turned and saw Sirius stretching and yawning in the bed next to his own.

"What's up, Prongs?" he asked, or rather, mumbled.

"Look outside, Padfoot…"

Sirius looked and moaned.

"Bloody rain—why does it always rain on Saturday, James?"

"That's not what I mean. Look!" James pointed at the lonely and barely visible figure up in the sky. Sirius stared at the dangerous maneuvers and loops done at an incredible speed, and then turned to James, a mischievous sparkle in his eye.

James understood his best friend intentions without a word, but shook his head and waved his hand in the direction of beds belonging to Bradley brothers. Sirius nodded with understanding. They didn't need the two boys, whom they didn't get along with, to know about their pranks. What if they told a teacher about it? Sirius sighed when he remembered how fitting it was to have a dormitory only to themselves.

Both boys changed as quietly as they could and left the room. They had to find out who the flier was—and prank him, if he turned out to be a Slytherin. They reached the common room and were about to go out through the portrait hole when James, who was leading the way, stopped abruptly. Sirius bumped into him and was about to curse loudly when he noticed what had made James stop.

It was two girls, curled up next to each other on the sofa and sound asleep.

Lily snored slightly and her chest rose and fell rhythmically. She was smiling dreamily, her hair a mess with many strands coming out of the braid she had worn yesterday.

Hermione, on the other hand, was not smiling. She lay motionless, her body tense, as if she were anticipating something horrible. Suddenly she shouted, "No! Stop! Harry! Voldemort is trying to lure you! Can't you see? We will all die!" She did not wake up, but she started to sob in a heart-breaking way.

Sirius fought a sudden urge to wake her up from the nightmare and comfort her. Instead, he turned away and headed to the portrait hole.

"Come on, Prongs!" he urged his friend, still staring at Lily, as if in a daze. "Let's not waste time."

James raised his eyebrows in surprise, but followed Sirius to the exit, casting one longing glance in the direction of sleeping girls.

"What was that about? I thought you would be happy to see Bradley asleep sweetly like that, Padfoot. Aren't you guys together? Or soon-to-be together?"

"No," answered Sirius shortly. "No, we're not."

James tried to understand what he had just heard. Sirius was giving up on a girl? That was unheard of!

"But I thought…" he started, but Sirius interjected angrily.

"You though wrong, OK? So let's get over it and do what we want to do! Prank the flier, drown Snivellus in Moaning Myrtle's toilet, interrogate my brother or something and just stop talking about girls—they're just pain in the arse!"

James chuckled at that, secretly thinking the exact same thing as Lily; Sirius was finally getting what he deserved.

They were outside in the pouring rain soon enough. For a moment, they couldn't see the mysterious flier, but then James shouted, "There! Above the forest!"

Indeed, there was lonely figure visible up there, probably with his or her back turned on them. James and Sirius waited; they couldn't see the person's face from so far away. And then, to their utmost surprise, the mysterious flier just headed into the forest and disappeared from their view completely.

Sirius spoke after a moment of silence.

"Pity we don't have the Map anymore…"

"Pity," James agreed, and two boys turned, heading back into the castle.


	15. Chapter 15

**Disclaimer: **Right. Despite the fact I'd love to, I don't own Harry Potter or anything in this story, apart from the plot, obviously.

**Author note:** Thank a lot to Aln-Mai, who proofreads the story from now on. No more stupid mistakes:). Also thanks to you guys for all the reviews and comments. I had the impression that the end of last chapter was a little confusing. So, here comes the explanation: Harry was at the edge of the forest when James and Sirius came out and he flew into the forest without seeing them out. They did not recognize him. Now, what was Harry doing, when he flew into forbidden forest? Read and find out:)

**Chapter 15**

Harry went flying again. He knew it was risky, he knew that someone could see him, but it didn't stop him anyway. Luckily, it was raining, so there was a very small probability of someone going outside.

Harry loved flying the same way that some girls loved dancing—when he was doing it, he felt free and no matter how stupid it sounded, attracted to his surroundings. When he couldn't do it for a long time, all his muscles ached, and no amount of stretching could stop the feeling. So, exactly one week since he was nearly spotted by the Marauders, he was outside again, with a firm intention of coming back in about an hour, which would be before everybody woke up.

But he had not taken into account the fact that when he was flying, he simply did not notice the passing time. So, predictably, he was still up in the air at ten o'clock.

He had just finished a long series of crazy loops (his favorite maneuver) when he noticed a few figures emerging from the castle. He hovered high in he air for a while, hoping that the rain would be enough to hide his identity, and at the same time, tried to figure out a way of returning unnoticed to the castle. Maybe it was Ron again, trying to warn him? Well, it would be stupid to count on that.

He soon knew that he was not so lucky this time. He counted the unknown shadows—one, two, three—there were about six people outside, despite the fact that it was still quite early in the morning, and moreover, it was raining heavily. Harry doubted there were many other students as desperate as he was to get a morning broomstick flight.

Instead of heading towards the castle, he flew up in the sky, hoping that even if the students down on the ground noticed him, they wouldn't be able to figure out who he was. When he was high enough to be safe, he once again searched the around on the grounds to find the figures. At first he couldn't see them, until he finally noticed them already halfway towards the Forbidden Forest.

They had to be running, otherwise they wouldn't move so fast. Part of Harry thought that there was nothing special about it—a couple of students went jogging—maybe they had just lost a bet, or something. But another part of him, some sort of intuition, told him there was something going on.

Finally Harry's curiosity got the better of him. He decided to follow the students and see what they were up to. He stopped at the edge of the forest and observed them, invisible from the group. The mysterious students entered the dangerous forest without hesitation. Harry waited until he was sure that they wouldn't notice him and followed them, staying high in the air.

He didn't notice two more students emerging from the castle, watching him, and then turning back with disappointment as soon he flew out of their sight.

Instead, he followed the jogging group into the forest. Because of the leaves and branches that were hiding him, he was able to get much closer to them, close enough to tell that they were from Slytherin. Snape was among them, as well as some other boys from their year, and a few older students.

Harry tried to fly as quietly as he could, but it was rather difficult. The broom he had, even though it was the best of the school brooms, was rather old and emitted odd sounds from time to time. It was also almost impossible to avoid the branches.

Luckily, the Slytherins didn't go too far into the forest. They stopped in a small clearing, surrounded by bushes, perfect for a hiding spot from someone trying to spy on them. When it came to overhearing their conversation, however, Harry was sorely disappointed. Although they were not very wise about choosing their meeting spot, when it came to protection charms, they certainly knew what to do. Harry supposed that he could try to break the wards, but this would certainly alarm them, and Harry would probably wind up dueling six students—which he didn't want to do, of course.

Even though it was rather pointless to stay, Harry waited until the meeting was over. As it turned out, it was a good thing, because after the wards were down, the Slytherins continued to talk in hushed voices while heading back to the castle. Harry didn't hear much, but a few mentions of "Dark Lord" and "orders" was enough to give him a very strong idea of what the meeting was about.

He felt a shiver running down his spine—was it possible that these boys were already Death Eaters? Even in his wildest dreams, Harry could not imagine someone his age murdering another person without a second thought.

* * *

Hermione and Lily woke up simultaneously. Their conversation last evening had turned into a large gossip session later on, and they had talked late into the night, finally falling asleep right where they were, too tired and lazy to go up to their dorm.

Some time later, Ron came downstairs from the boys' dormitories. He seemed rather offended by Hermione's good mood, but apologized anyway.

Lily giggled madly at her friend when she saw her disentangled hair. Hermione smiled back weakly. She'd had a nightmare that night—a terrible nightmare about Voldemort and Harry. She couldn't remember it very well at that moment, only recalling that she had been very, very frightened.

She tried to regain her composure—she was probably as safe from Voldemort as she could get—back in their time she was a target, both for being a Muggle-born and friend of Harry. Here, she was just one of the Hogwarts students—not really standing out from the crowd. The same applied to Harry—for the first time in his life, he was relatively safe.

Lily noticed her thoughtful expression and scowled.

"Don't tell me that you're still upset, Hermione. I thought that we'd sorted things out, didn't we?"

"Oh, yes—it's nothing. Just a bad dream," Hermione answered, shaking her head.

"Sure," Lily nodded. She stretched a little bit and yawned.

Exactly at that moment, James and Sirius entered the common room. Lily and Hermione froze when they saw the strange looks both boys gave them. It was awkward—two boys and two girls who did not normally talk to each other alone in the common room.

After a moment Hermione quietly said "hi." It was even more awkward then the silence before. James gave a small nod and continued to the stairs. Sirius gaped at her for a moment before following his friend without a word.

When they were gone, both girls looked at each other uncomfortably. That had been just a little bit too weird.

* * *

By the time Harry got back to the castle, it was already late in the morning. He didn't have time for a warm, steamy shower that he would love to take—after all, he had just spent almost three hours in the chilling rain, half of it sitting behind a bush. Not the sort of thing he enjoyed, certainly.

Instead of a shower, he performed cleaning and drying spells on himself and went straight to the Great Hall.

Most people had already finished their breakfast. Harry sat beside Ron; Hermione and Lily were nowhere to be seen.

"Hey, Ron," he said, putting a huge amount of toast and fried eggs on his plate.

Ron looked at him with a strange expression.

"You know what Harry? If you really can't stop yourself from going outside and flying, then OK, do it. But don't stay there until you're bound to be seen!" Ron whispered, even though it was clear he was quite irritated.

"When I woke up," he continued, "James and Sirius were already outside, checking who the mysterious flier was. They're really scared that you're the new Slytherin Seeker or something."

Harry snorted. Ron only shook his head.

"They're looking at you right now. I'll bet they saw you!"

Harry turned and saw Marauders discussing something, and throwing occasional glances at him.

Harry looked back at Ron.

"I don't think they could have seen me—something happened when I was outside—something I need to talk with you and Hermione about. Not here, though."

Ron noticed serious note in his friend's voice and nodded.

"We'll go to the Room after breakfast, OK?"

"Yeah—we should go and get Hermione. It might be hard to separate her from Lily, though. Have they woken up?"

Ron chuckled.

"Nice show they made of themselves, sleeping in common room like that. Why didn't you wake them up when you were going outside, anyway?"

"Well—I didn't want to. They were probably very tired after a whole night of gossiping. It's good that Hermione is finally making friends, don't you think?"

"She made friends with Ginny," Ron pointed out.

"Did she? I mean, they liked each other, but were they friends? Like you and me are? I don't think so, Ron. Anyway, I think we should go and get her. And maybe let's take her something to eat. And something for Lily, as well."

Ron nodded in agreement, so they grabbed some toast with marmalade and took two cups of steaming hot tea. They were halfway to Gryffindor Tower when they heard someone calling their names.

They turned around and saw the Marauders hurrying to catch up with them. Ron threw Harry a meaningful look, as if saying, 'Didn't I tell you so?'

It was Sirius who spoke first.

"Hmm, Bradley," he started lazily, in the very same manner he used when he was talking about Snape. "I was wondering. You woke up first, you were gone when we got up, and yet still you were late for breakfast. I was wondering—what were you doing?"

Harry shrugged and replied calmly, "I can't see that it's any of your business."

"Well, it is. Of course it is—you see, it worries us when we see a fellow Gryffindor going alone to such a dangerous place as the Forbidden Forest."

Harry paled at that. They had seen him? But how? Ron threw him an incredulous look.

"Yeah, and it made us wonder, you know," James added with pure hatred in his voice, "What can a coward like you need there?"

"Now there's another question. How is it connected with everything that's going on?" It was Remus who spoke this time, with a very thoughtful expression on his face. "It makes people think whether there is a connection between the new students and the tragic events that started to occur in Hogsmeade right after they came..."

Up until that moment, Harry's mind had been racing to come up with a proper excuse, but when he heard Remus' accusations, his temper simply got better of him.

"What do you know?" he shouted with fury. "What do you know about anything? You think I had something to do with the killings? So, just to let you know: I would never do anything connected with Voldemort! Never! Bloody hell! He killed my parents!" Harry would have continued, but he made some abrupt gesture to emphasize his words and he spilled the tea he was carrying all over Peter.

"Harry!" Ron shouted with surprise, while Peter shrieked and other Marauders gasped. The scene would have been funny, if the people taking part didn't dislike each other so much.

James glared at Harry and drew his wand out. Harry also took his wand out, and he cast a drying spell on Peter, without even looking at the boy who would betray his parents in future. He didn't apologize.

With his eyes on the other Marauders he spoke much more calmly, "It was not me flying out there. And you should never accuse me of anything like that."

He turned and left, beckoning Ron to follow.

* * *

James and Sirius watched the retreating backs of the two boys for a while. Finally, James turned to Sirius with a vicious smile.

"You know what? It was stupid in the first place to assume he was the flier. Anyway, I'm glad. I would not want to have to put up with him during Quidditch practice."

Sirius smirked. Peter nodded and smiled in a way, which said 'I whole-heartedly agree with you'. Only Remus shook his head, and looked at James with an unreadable expression. He opened his mouth to say something, closed it, than opened it again and finally spoke.

"You know what, James? You are really thick sometimes. It's obvious they were lying."


	16. Chapter 16

**Disclaimer: **Harry's not mine, you know...

**Author note:** Thanks a lot to Aln-Mai for helping with grammar and spelling. And I'm really sorry for the delay - I have a lot of work and barely find time to write. To all those who where scared that I'm going to abandon the story - I want to write it to the end, which means it will get around twice as long as it is now, I suppose.

Ah yes, thanks, thanks, thanks for all the reviews. You guys are just great:)

**Chapter 16**

James and Sirius looked at Remus, surprised by his statement. For a while, they just gaped at him wordlessly, then spoke simultaneously. It was amazing how similar their reactions were sometimes.

"What do you mean, he's lying?" asked Sirius, raising his eyebrows questioningly, while James folded his arms and said indignantly, "I'm not thick!"

"Yes, you are, Prongs," replied Remus, shaking his head. "You both are. Didn't you guys notice how nervous Bradley was? I mean Ron, not Harry—Harry was just angry. And anyway, he just confirmed our suspicions..."

"How?" James inquired.

"None of us mentioned anything about flying. And Bradley said that it was not him flying out there! How did he know?"

"His brother told him?" suggested Sirius.

"Maybe—but I don't think so. They were just too emotional about whole thing..."

Peter was observing the exchange between other boys silently, still in a bit of shock after being soaked with hot tea. He was irritated by the fact that his friends paid no attention to his mishap and only talked about Bradley. Bradley this, Bradley that—who cared? As far as Peter was concerned, Bradley could have been Merlin incarnate. Full moon was approaching and they still hadn't made any plans!

Finally, gathering his courage, he decided to share his opinions, which he rarely did.

"Guys—" he started.

"But honestly, Moony—" Sirius kept talking, not noticing his quietest friend.

"Guys..." Peter tried again, without much success.

"Guys!" he shouted, finally managing to get attention of everyone—not only the Marauders, but other students present as well. Peter felt his cheeks burning with embarrassment.

"I mean—I—it's just..." Peter started to stutter, which always happened when he was nervous. James, Sirius and Remus were standing around him, watching him with what Peter perceived to be impatience, but in fact was anticipation.

Apart from Sirius, they really valued Peter's opinions. They were usually sort of odd, but in a good way, and different than what rest of Marauders thought—not really insightful, but always giving them a new view on things.

Peter didn't know that. At the moment he felt as if McGonagall had asked him to do a very complicated transfiguration in front of the whole school. Some part of him, hidden very deep inside, told him that this wasn't the way things should be between friends.

With enormous effort, and even more embarrassment, Peter finally managed to say what was on his mind. Immediately after he finished, Sirius scowled and sighed deeply in exasperation. He started to explain as if he was talking to a five-year-old.

"Don't you get it, Wormtail? If everything was all right with him, he wouldn't lie! He would rather go and show off his talent, don't you think? Moony, you are right! He's bound to be connected to those murders!"

"I didn't say that..." Remus started.

"You did!" James interrupted. "When you were talking to him..."

"I only wanted to provoke him. You know, people tend to say things they don't mean to when they are nervous. And it worked. I don't think that he's connected with the murders."

Suddenly Sirius remembered something. He turned to James.

"Prongs, do you remember what Hermione was saying in her dream this morning? It was something about You-Know-Who..."

"I don't remember. I didn't really pay attention..." James blushed slightly. Sirius smirked for a brief moment, but soon his face was pensive again.

"I'm sure there was something about You-Know-Who, but I cant' recall what—anyway, Moony, it only proves that they really are connected to this, somehow!"

"Does it? I mean—maybe Bradley was telling the truth about their parents killed by You-Know-Who—we can't know for sure!"

James only shook his head. "Moony, why are you defending him? There is something odd going on with them. I don't know what, I don't know why, but I think we should check it out. Just to be sure..."

"I agree with you, Prongs," said Sirius. "But I think that there's one thing we should check out first—the Slytherins."

"What about the Slytherins?" Remus demanded.

James and Sirius looked around, eyeing passing students suspiciously.

"Not here, Moony, let's go somewhere where no one will overhear us," Sirius said quietly.

Three boys went down the corridor, Peter following them closely, but still remaining a bit behind.

* * *

Harry and Ron, both still angry after the encounter with the Marauders headed up to Gryffindor Tower. They found Hermione and Lily just leaving their dorm, finally dressed and ready to go down for breakfast, but still sleepy and yawning.

Both girls were delighted when they saw the toast and tea that Harry and Ron had brought up for them. With happy smiles they sunk into comfortable sofas and started eating while listening to the story of Harry and Ron's encounter with the Marauders.

Lily was furious. She kept fuming about false accusations and about James, even though he didn't say anything in particular during the incident. Hermione was rather surprised by the fact that it was Remus who actually had said the whole thing about Harry being connected with the murders. He always seemed to be a peacemaker.

Of course, telling the story demanded revealing that Harry actually was a superb flier. This did not surprise Lily, though—after the boy's duel against Lindberg, there wasn't much that could surprise Lily about him. Or at least she thought so.

After they were done with breakfast, Harry, Ron and Hermione headed to Room of Requirement. A week ago they would have had to look for excuses to get away from Lily without hurting her feelings. Now they simply said that they had something to discuss concerning the facts about them which they couldn't share.

Lily didn't like being left out, but she accepted the fact that her new friends needed some privacy.

In the Room of Requirement, Harry told Ron and Hermione about what he had overheard in the Forbidden Forest.

"So, what should we do about this?" he asked his friends, once he had finished the story.

"Nothing," said Hermione simply.

"Nothing?" Harry looked at her in surprise. "Nothing?"

"Yep, nothing."

"But, Hermione! They're practically Death Eaters! Here! Students in this school! We can't just let them be!" Harry exclaimed.

"Harry, you know very well that we can't get involved! We can't risk changing the future!"

"Hermione..." Harry replied slowly, thoughtfully. "Do you know everything that has happened? Our stay here is part of the past, it is a part of the history! You don't know if we got involved or not! I bet it wasn't written in any of the history books you've read!"

"But..." Hermione started, surprised by Harry's words. "No—you're wrong. We know some facts. We know that Snape was a Death Eater. We know that he was not sent to Azkaban—if we tell, he probably will be! So it would change the future!"

"No, Hermione, listen!" Harry was getting more and more agitated. He was gesturing wildly. For once, he was sure that he was right, not Hermione. After all, they couldn't predict which course of action would alter the future and which would not. If only she could understand him!

He continued with a frown, "It's like this: we don't know what happened precisely. For example, we don't know how Snape became a spy! Maybe Dumbledore confronted him after WE told him and then Snape decided he would rather join Order than serve Voldemort. We just don't know it! And, anyway, I'm not going to tell Dumbledore something I know from the future—only something I learned here!"

Hermione shook her head. Harry's arguments made some sense, she had to admit it. But she just felt that they should stay out of the stream of events. They knew too much, and no matter what Harry said, it affected their choices and decisions. If only he understood!

"Harry—I don't know how to explain it. It's just like this—if events from the future affect something in the past, then it creates a paradox. Let's say—I know that Lily will eventually marry James, so, as her friend, I talk her into going out with him. But I talked to her because I knew she would eventually marry him. And I knew because she married him. And she married him because I talked her into going out with him. And it goes on like that—do I make sense?"

"Not really," Ron said with small smile. Harry chuckled.

"Don't laugh, it's important!"

"Look, Hermione—I get your point, but we are here. We are already affecting everything around us. We can't help it. This paradox you're talking about—it's already happening. We can't avoid it. I agree that we have to be careful with not changing anything, like—I don't know—telling the Marauders that Peter would betray them eventually. But in this case, we don't really know which decision will change the future, because we don't know what really happened! So, I suppose that we should do what is right—either tell Dumbledore, or find some way to prevent further murders..."

"Harry..." Hermione still was unconvinced. "I see your point, but I think we shouldn't get involved."

The two of them looked at each other. They were not quarreling, but it was clear that neither was going to change his or her mind. Harry turned to his other friend.

"What do you think, Ron?"

Ron looked at them both with confusion in his eyes. He hadn't taken part in the discussion so far—he had no idea what to do, this whole paradox-thing was just to abstract for him. And now it looked as if it were up to him as to what to decide. His gaze traveled from one friend to another.

"I think Hermione is right."

Harry sighed deeply.

"Very well. It's decided then. We will not interfere. But I still think we should tell someone."

Hermione just gaped at Ron in confusion, and Ron mistook her expression for discontentment. _What did I do wrong this time?_ he wondered.

* * *

Hermione was not very happy. Ron had willingly taken her side in the argument. It had probably never happened before. She liked Ron and Harry a lot, of course, but she was rather used to struggling with them about every little thing. She was the girl, while they were boys—she was the studious one, and they didn't particularly care that much about having good grades. She was the responsible one, while they both were very reckless when it came to rules and regulations. And now Ron was taking her side, just like that?

Well—it might have been that he was trying to appease her after his unpleasant comments.

But Hermione couldn't help wondering whether there was more to it than that. _Damn you, Lily!_ She thought angrily._ Did you have to complicate everything so much?_

And it looked like their plan was going to fail—Sirius had ignored her that morning, obviously angry with her. It was amusing in some way—she didn't suspect that Sirius would give up so easily. But then, she was the first girl ever not to worship him. Hermione chuckled slightly.

She looked around and smiled to herself. Unconsciously, she went to the library. She didn't have too much homework, but she didn't mind some additional reading—just to take her mind off of things.

* * *

"...and that's why we think that Snape and others have to be connected with the murders," James finished.

The Marauders were sitting in a deserted corridor, close to the Astronomy Tower. They had placed some shielding charms on themselves in order to ensure that no one could overhear their conversation.

Remus and Peter were stunned with the news. Remus was also surprised that neither of the boys found it necessary to act sooner—it was already four days since the attack, and any traces were probably gone.

"It's not like we would really find anything there that Ministry hasn't already found," Sirius spat with a dismissive shrug of his shoulders. He was usually took his feelings out on everyone around when he felt guilty.

The other boys ignored him, and Remus asked calmly, "What are we going to do?"

"We need to question that greasy git, Snivelly. He probably is in the middle of it—I wouldn't be surprised if he already was You-Know-Who's faithful servant. Remember what happened on the train? Or by the lake last year? He keeps calling people 'Mudblood' left and right!"

"Yes, Prongs," Sirius snorted. "We know he tends to be disrespectful towards _people _fairly often. Especially one particular person, doesn't he, Prongsie? I bet you would be able to list us every single time he offended that particular person, wouldn't you?"

James blushed slightly and replied, "We are trying to discuss something important, Sirius! Honestly—I thought YOU were interested in checking this out in the first place."

"He's been too busy," Remus said with a chuckle. "Too busy flirting with certain girl..."

"Oh, shut it, Moony." It was Sirius' turn to be irritated. "We need to work out a plan."

All the boys nodded and were quiet for a while. Finally, James spoke.

"It's obvious that there's no point in going to the place of murder—we're not going to find anything there. So I guess our only source of information is the Slytherins."

"Maybe we could spy on them..." suggested Peter.

"Yeah, sure. James, grab your invisibility cloak and follow Snape everywhere. Maybe he'll slip up and say something..." Sirius waved his hand at Peter in a dismissing gesture.

"It's not such a bad idea, Padfoot," Remus defended his friend. "We could use some tracking spell—something like the stuff we had for the Map—and maybe combine it with something to overhear the conversation."

"Yes, that could work, Moony," said James with a little bit more enthusiasm.

"And how would you know _when_ to listen, James? You can't possibly spend all your time waiting for Snape to say something—especially if he's _not_ guilty." Sirius was still skeptical.

"We could have certain phrases trigger the spell—things like 'The Dark Lord' or 'Mudblood'."

"'Mudblood' would trigger the spell all the time, believe me," Sirius replied dryly.

"You know what the biggest drawback of this plan is?" Remus interjected suddenly.

"Yes—it's stupid," answered Sirius immediately.

"No. The problem is that this plan will work only if we assume that they're going to strike again. Otherwise, they might be involved in the whole thing, but not talk about it because it's already happened and they've got nothing to discuss. Do you get my point?"

"Yes," James nodded. "So we need to do something else..."

"Maybe we could question Snape or my darling brother. I think that there should be some truth potion in the school—not Veritaserum but something strong enough to work..." Sirius proposed.

"Sirius! You can't go and do things like that!" Remus protested.

"Yes, I can. I have good reason to do it. I'm trying to prevent further tragedies!" Sirius exclaimed indignantly.

"But it's..."

"Harmless. Especially when compared to killing someone."

"Very well, that's settled than. We will try to find a way to feed Snape some truth serum," James said, closing the discussion. "Do all the Marauders agree?"

"Yes."

"Yes."

"Y-yes."

"Good."


	17. Chapter 17

**Disclaimer: **Maybe a nice, proper disclaimer for a change? Nah...

**Author note:** Okey, first of all - I'm very, very sorry for the delay - I had my exams and I simply couldn't write.

Now,events taking place in this chapterare probablyone of the first things I came up with, just after I decided to write it, So, I really hope you will like it - finally some action coming, after few slow, romance chapters:)

Anyway, thanks for all your reviews, it means a lot to me to know that you like the story:)

And, last but not least, thanks to Aln-Mai for taking care of grammar, spelling and all this scary stuff.

**Chapter 17**

Getting some Truth Serum was the easiest part. It was not the first time that the Marauders had sneaked into one of the teachers' offices in order to obtain some important but unfortunately restricted object necessary for their pranks and other activities.

They didn't need to plan the whole excursion, especially since the office which they had in mind belonged to Professor Dose, blind to absolutely everything that was going on around her. She probably would not even notice that the potion was gone.

Peter waited in the corridor, in rat form, hidden in the shadows. Sirius was just behind the door, in dog form, which enhanced his hearing, allowing him to hear subtle squeaks from warnings from outside if someone approached. Remus and James, covered by the Invisibility cloak, rummaged through the shelves until they found what they were looking for. It wasn't Veritaserum, of course. If they got caught while using _that_ on a fellow student, they would risk being expelled from Hogwarts.

Everything went smoothly—the Marauders had years of practice.

The real problem, however, was getting Snape to drink it.

They decided on Potions class, the perfect occasion to strike. The plan was rather simple. As usual, they would cause mayhem, tease Snape enough to divert his attention elsewhere, and slip few doses of serum into whatever potion the Slytherin would be making that lesson. Then they would tease Snape about his abilities in order to provoke him into trying his own concoction to prove that it indeed worked.

And afterwards, they would question him.

The only problem was that the nearest Potions class was on Wednesday, the day of Remus' transformation, which meant that he would not be with them. But they simply couldn't wait any longer— they had already lost enough time.

* * *

Harry was struggling not to fall asleep. It was Wednesday—Potions, to be precise. It was just that sort of gloomy day, with gray clouds covering the sky and low air pressure making everybody sleepy.

Hermione was lecturing them again in a monotonous voice about why they should apply themselves more to the subject, even if the teacher's expectations were close to nothing. In general, Harry agreed, but right now he simply couldn't bring himself to do anything. With one last groan, he covered his head with the textbook and laid down on the desk, closing his eyes.

Hermione let out exasperated sight and set to work, fuming angrily. Back behind them a similar scene was taking place between Lily and Ron.

"Why don't we just swap places?" Ron suggested when Lily berated him once again for not helping with the assignment. "Hermione, you go and sit with Lily and I will sleep with Harry."

"Sleep with Harry?" Lily snorted.

"That's not what I meant..." Ron mumbled, his cheeks red.

Hermione giggled and said playfully, "Well, I for one have nothing against seeing what exactly you meant."

"Hermione!" Ron exclaimed. "You're my sister! You're supposed to be on my side."

Lily laughed openly. Even Harry peeked from under the textbook. _We are getting better at this_, he thought grimly, _better at pretending, better at lying..._ Somehow, he was not in the mood for jokes today.

"So, are you going to change places or not?" asked Lily. "You'll see! We'll give Snape a run for his money, won't we, Hermione?"

They all looked at the Slytherin student briefly. He was the only one in the classroom really working. He had some thick book open on his desk and was adding ingredient after ingredient to his cauldron. His hair was falling into his face, but it failed to hide his expression—a frown on his forehead marking deep concentration as he stirred the potion slowly.

"Right. Have fun." Ron said sarcastically as he stood up and moved to Harry's desk. He put his head on the desk, mimicking Harry.

Lily shook her head and both girls set to work, paying no attention whatsoever to the familiar buzz of conversations surrounding them.

Harry had really drifted away when a sudden commotion brought him back to reality. His eyes snapped open and he looked around, blinking wildly, only to see both Hermione and Lily fuming angrily.

"What's going on?" he asked quietly.

"Sirius stole some ingredients from Snape," Ron replied quietly, pointing to the front of the classroom.

Harry looked and saw Sirius standing close to Snape with smirk on his face. The Slytherin boy had his fists clenched and grimace of hatred was making his face even more twisted than usual. Behind them stood Peter, with an innocent expression on his face.

James was talking with the teacher, obviously trying to distract the old woman from Sirius and Snape.

Other students were only watching, not willing to take part in the never-ceasing war between four popular Gryffindors and one unpopular Slytherin.

Harry could see Lily's fists clenching and unclenching, as she muttered something angrily to herself.

"Don't bother with them." He whispered, placing a supporting hand on her arm. Lily turned around, surprised by the gesture, but smiled at him nonetheless.

"I know—I can partly understand them. I mean, Snape definitely is a brat. But still—the way they're bullying him—it reminds me of my sister, Petunia..."

"I know how you feel," Harry replied and nodded with understanding. "I know exactly how you feel."

He turned and watched the scene in front of the classroom again. It was painfully similar to the scene from Snape's Pensieve. Again, four boys were attacking one just because they were bored. Another thought suddenly struck him. Was _this_ the reason why Snape was so bitter? Was this the reason of his future choices? Was this the reason why he became a Death Eater?

Suddenly something caught his eyes. Sirius was just taunting Snape with another insult, holding the stolen items up in the air. But behind him, Peter was actually pouring something into the Snape's potion. Some dark, strange liquid, unfamiliar liquid.

"Lily, did you see that?" Harry asked quietly.

"What?"

"Peter added something to Snape's potion. You don't think they would actually try to poison him?"

"I wouldn't put it past them. Come on, let's go." She grabbed Harry's hand, dragging him to the front of the classroom. Harry followed her with a strange, sinking feeling in his heart. It was one thing to bully someone, but poison him? _Please, don't let my father get this low..._ Harry prayed silently, the idea hurting him more than he would ever admit.

As they got nearer, Harry could finally hear what Sirius was saying.

"... you know what I think, Snivellus? It's really good that you _are_ working so hard in potions, honestly." People around laughed, as if the comment was so amusing. Harry gritted his teeth. "There must be some field in which you are doing well. Not any serious magic, of course. This requires some power, doesn't it? But don't worry, potions are excellent choice for those less gifted."

"Shut up, Black," Snape replied furiously. Harry recognized his tone immediately. The same tone which would cause every non-Slytherin student to cower and beg silently for the end of the lesson in just a few years. Only that its effect now was nowhere near to its effect in future. Instead of being intimidated, Sirius merely smirked and said smugly, "What an intelligent response! I'll give you that, Snape, you are really getting better with making conversation. Few more years and you'll be able to use full sentences."

Laughter filled the room again.

"You think you're so funny, Black, don't you?" Snape spat.

"Oh, I was not joking!" Sirius replied indignantly. "I was absolutely serious."

Few people chuckled on the overused mispronunciation.

Snape was about to say something, when another person joined them.

"Why are you wasting your time on him, Padfoot?" James drawled in a bored voice. "Come on, let him do whatever he's doing. It's not like he would ever make a real, working potion anyway."

"What would you know about it, Potter? Somehow I don't see you making any potions yourself! You probably wouldn't be able to tell the cauldron from the spoon!"

James merely glared at him with contempt.

"Now, some people are just natural. I _don't need_ to make any potions—I do well on the exams anyway. I bet I could get any potion better than you, just name it."

From furious expression on Snape's face, Harry could tell that the words were not far from the truth.

"Very well, Potter, why don't you prove it?"

"Why not?" James asked lightly. "But before I prove anything, you prove me that it's worth my effort! What were we doing today, anyway? Ah, the Looks-Altering Potion—come on, drink some! Prove to me first that it really works!"

"You could use some looks-altering anyway, Snape," Sirius added with a smirk.

Snape glared at them for a while, but with everybody watching, he couldn't back from the challenge. Without a word he turned, took a spoon and dipped it in the potion.

"No!" Lily shouted. "Don't drink it, Snape!"

"Evans, what the hell are you..." Sirius started to say, turning to her angrily. James turned as well, with his unreadable expression changing into an icy glare the moment he saw Lily still holding Harry's hand.

Snape only shrugged his shoulders and raised the spoon to his mouth.

"I saw Pettigrew adding something to your potion, don't drink it!" Lily shouted frantically.

Snape turned and looked at Peter, who tried to look innocent, but the blush on his cheeks betrayed him immediately.

"Can't you see that they were teasing you only to make you drink it?" Lily asked quietly.

"Evans, you spoil-sport!" Sirius groaned like a child who had just had his favorite toy taken away.

"What, I should let you poison him, or something?"

Few people gasped at that, horrified at the suggestion.

"You think we would poison him, Evans?" James asked, his eyes widening with surprise and hurt. Harry watched his father's reaction and felt as if a great stone was removed from his heart. It was obvious that it was not what the Marauders had in mind.

"I..." Lily replied uncertainly.

"Honestly, Evans, just how low do you think of us?" James asked with a strange sadness in his voice and then continued, "Has it ever occurred to you that we are doing this for a reason?"

"Yes, a simple, harmless prank," Sirius interjected smugly, throwing a meaningful glance at his best friend. "I'm hurt to see a fellow classmate accusing us of such terrible things. We would never, ever hurt our dear Snivelly. Too much fun with him around."

A few people snorted at that, the tension of whole encounter slowly evaporating.

* * *

Severus Snape stormed out of the classroom, furious. Black, Potter, Lupin, Pettigrew...they simply didn't know with whom they were picking a fight. He felt anger boiling inside him as he walked at a fast pace. He knew that one day, he would get his revenge with the help of his powerful new friends and allies. One day, he would not be saved—again!—by that pathetic Mudblood and her equally pathetic friends. One day, he would show everyone...

He didn't see anything around him, concentrating on sweet visions of a humiliated Potter and Black begging him for mercy and suddenly he bumped into someone—Evans.

"Watch where you're going, Mudblood!" he spat angrily, pushing her aside and continuing on his way—before he felt something poking him in his throat. He saw Harry Bradley standing in front of him, his face expressionless apart from his eyes, which were boring into him fiercely.

"Don't you ever call her that, Snape. Ever," the boy said.

Snape smirked at the Gryffindor.

"Or what?" he asked with a sneer. "You'll fight with me? Like you did with Potter?"

"No," Harry replied calmly, not letting the insult get to him.

"Harry!" Lily shouted, looking from one boy to another with wide eyes. "Come on, leave him alone. I don't care what he calls me. It only shows how pathetic he really is, it doesn't offend me."

Next to her, Hermione and Ron also had their wands out, but didn't do anything, letting Harry handle the situation.

"Lily, I know you don't like when someone defends you, but you can't let people treat you like trash just because fighting against them reminds you of James Potter," Harry said quietly, his eyes never leaving Snape's face.

The Slytherin was losing his patience. Suddenly he took a step back and took his wand out in one swift movement. But he didn't even get the chance to throw a spell, because Bradley disarmed him with a whisper. He stood there, glaring at the Gryffindors surrounding him, defenseless, but not willing to give up just yet. And then he saw Arborus Nott and Ret van Hollen, two of his fellow classmates, approaching. None of Gryffindors saw them, as they were focused solely on him.

"Apologize, Snape," Harry said.

Severus waited until both Nott and van Hollen had their wands out and then said with a sneer, "You must be joking, Bradley..."

And at that precise moment, both Slytherins shouted their respective incantations, their wands pointing at Harry.

"_Expelliarmus!_"

"_Annihilus!_"

Harry ducked first spell and immediately produced a shield to protect himself from the other one. But he was not quick enough. He felt the spell hit him and felt it doing something strange with his magic, weakening him. He kept a tight grip on his wand, but let Snape take his as he fell to his knees.

Instantly both Ron and Hermione joined the fight.

"_Stupefy!_" shouted Ron, pointing his wand at one of the Slytherins.

"_Petrificus totalus!_" followed the girl.

Both engaged themselves in the fight with the two boys. And Harry found himself in front of a smirking evilly Snape.

"You thought you could fight against me, you scum?" he asked, his voice filled with cruel satisfaction.

Harry was trying to fight the dizziness when suddenly he heard quiet, shaky whisper.

"_Finite Incantatem._"

It was Lily. Momentarily, Harry regained his strength and leaped up, sending a random curse in the direction of Snape. The Slytherin boy ducked and two of them stood there, glaring at each other. Both of the other Slytherins were already unconscious. It was back to the two of them.

"You think you're good enough to face me?" Snape asked with a scowl. "You are a coward, Bradley, unable to do anything without the help of your siblings."

"We will see," Harry replied quietly, unfazed by the insult.

"Very well. _Serpensortia!_"

It was the second time in his life when Harry saw the spell, but this time it was done properly. Instead of one, small snake, a whole bunch of them emerged from Snape's wand. Harry took step back, his eyes widening at the view.

"I knew you were coward. What, Bradley? Scared of few snakes?"

Harry watched the reptiles, which were hissing all at once, creating a humming sound from which Harry could occasionally hear one or two sensible words.

"_Humans... so many humans... danger... attack... defend ourselves... danger... attack..." _

"Scared, Mudblood?" Snape asked again, this time turning to Lily.

When Harry heard this, he saw red. He glared at Snape furiously and then spat with venom, "I told you not to call her that! Let's see how brave you are! _Attack him!_" he ordered in Parseltongue, not bothering anymore about the consequences of using the ill-gotten ability in front of so many students.

"Harry!" Hermione exclaimed. As if on cue, everyone—including her and Ron—stared at Harry, shocked.

The snakes slid towards Snape, who just gaped at them, immense surprise written all over his face. He took two steps back, but snakes were faster, hissing at him in anger.

"_Finite Incantatem!_" Hermione screamed, and snakes vanished with a puff of dark smoke.

"You're a Parselmouth. How come..." Snape mumbled, looking around as if he just woke up.

Harry watched the Slytherin with disgust and anger when suddenly he saw something that made his heart stop. Further up the corridor stood James and Sirius, gaping at him with their mouths open wide.


	18. Chapter 18

**Disclaimer: **Ok., you know, don't sue me, I'm not making any money.

**Author note:** I want to apologise for such a long time without updates. I explained everything in my profile, so I'm not going to repeat myself, but I want to say that I really am very sorry for keeping you waiting. This is un-betaed version of the chapter, I hope you won't mind my mistakes too much... Hopefully, proofread version will appear soon.

**Chapter 18**

For a moment it seemed as though everyone froze. They all stood staring at each other. The first person to move was Snape. He leaped suddenly in direction of his friends and enervated them with single spell. Than he dragged them away, dizzy and confused, not even sparing Harry one last glance.

For a while they all just watched himuntil finally Hermione came to her senses.

"Harry!" she said urgently. "I will deal with Snape, you go and fix everything with them."

She pointed at two Marauders and Harry shuddered at image of trying to explain everything to two hostile boys. It was not going to be easy.

"Harry," Hermione whispered, "do whatever it takes, even if you have to use some knowledge they don't expect you to have, do you understand?"

Harry's eyes widened with realization and he nodded, while Hermione run after Snape.

"You're going to let her go like this?" Ron asked with disbelief.

"No. You go with her, Ron. I'll manage here by myself."

Ron looked at Harry with worry, but the other boy urged him to go and so he followed their friend hastily.

Harry turned and saw three remaining people watching him with expressions varying from surprise to utter hatred. He inhaled deeply as if he was preparing himself for the battle. In a way the confrontation with three teenagers was much more terrifying to him then any danger he'd been through and that was saying something.

"Who the hell are you, Bradley?" James asked in low, dangerous voice.

"Harry? Can you explain this?" Lily added, her voice trembling with suppressed emotion. Harry stared at her for a moment inquiringly and felt wave of relief when he saw that although she was far from accepting, she didn't hate him.

"Lily..." he started slowly, thoughtfully. "Do you..." he wanted to ask if she trusted him, but suddenly it sounded so stupid. She knew him for less then a month and although they became fast friends, she had no reason presume that he really was innocent. He was a _parselmouth, _after all. And she knew that there were things about him, which he had kept from her.

He looked her in the eyes intently and said:

"Lily, I promise I will explain everything to you, but first I have to make sure that they won't blab about this to entire school. After this I will tell you as much as I can and you will decide whether you trust me or no, ok?"

Lily looked at him uncertainly, clearly not willing to go.

"Why can't you explain everything to as all at once, Bradley?" Sirius demanded, folding his arms on his chest. "Going to feed her with some lies? And afraid we will not be as easy to convince?"

Harry broke his eye contact with Lily and looked at two Marauders with determination on his face, taking a deep breath. However, before he had any chance to say anything, Lily erupted by his side.

"You assume he will lie, without even listening to what he has to say! You judge people unfairly, just because you are jealous!"

Sirius merely snorted at that, but James, seeing as Lily was defending Harry again, started to speak quietly, his voice soaking with anger.

"Fine for you to say that. As if you never, ever misjudged anyone!"

"I don't go around this school hexing people left and right just because they are from different house than mine! Or hating them day after I met them." Lily shouted. Than she saw James expression and she understood what exactly he meant by his words. "You meant yourself?" she asked in disbelief and then snorted loudly. "Honestly, Potter, I am not misjudging you! I had five years to get to know and I assure you, my opinion of you is justified. And your opinion of Harry is not."

James stared at Lily for a while, terrible hurt visible in his eyes. He opened his mouth, but then closed them without saying anything. He turned on his hill and would have marched away, if Sirius didn't grab him in last moment, saying:

"Oh, no, James. You stay here. We are not finished with Bradley yet. And you, Evans, you must have fallen on your head when you were young, really. He is a bloody _parselmouth_! Dark wizard! Does it ring any bell in this empty head of yours?"

"Padfoot!" James hissed angrily.

"You..." Lily started, her fists clenched as she glared at Sirius furiously. But she didn't have a chance to say anything more, because the Marauder simply took step forward and put hand on her mouth, blocking any sound.

"Look, flower, you will tell me how much you hate me later, now let's listen to pathetic lies that Bradley will produce to explain himself."

At that, Harry snorted.

"I am not going to explain myself to you," he stated simply. He paused for a while, as three teenagers gathered around him watched him speechless after this declaration. "I wanted to say this without Lily, but since you insist on her presence, than I guess it's your problem, not mine. What I want, is that you don't tell about this... situation anyone."

"You are raving mad, Bradley, if you think we are going to keep it quiet for you. Raving mad." Sirius said this with a vicious sneer, as if Harry's words amused him.

"I want you to keep it quiet not for me, but for Remus." Harry replied, hating himself for what he had to do. "I know why he was absent today. If you tell about me, I tell about him, simple."

Harry saw that his words hit the target, as both boys abruptly inhaled. Sirius was first to regain some control of himself.

"I don't know what you are talking about, Bradley. You are mental!" he tried to snort after that, but his voice was shaking and not at all convincing.

Harry had big lump in his throat as he forced the words that came next.

"You know perfectly well what I'm talking about, Padfoot." He emphasized the nickname and hoped that this would work. "I know about his illness. I know about the way you invented to help him. I know everything."

"You son of the bitch!" James erupted and leaped at Harry. It took all his Quidditch reflex to avoid the blow. James almost fell, but turned immediately and started charging at his son like a bull.

"Potter!" Lily shrieked, distressed. "Stop!"

But James took no notice and jumped at Harry again. He punched him in the stomach and Harry gasped as he lost his breath for a moment.

Lily screamed loudly.

Harry pointed his wand at James, but somehow couldn't bring himself to say any curse and would probably get bitten up like a pulp, if a stern voice didn't stop them all dead in their tracks.

"What is going on here?"

They all gaped at Professor McGonnagal, who stood there, with both hands on her hips, her eyes throwing daggers.

"I can't believe it! James Potter! I expected better of you, than to fight in a corridor like this! And you, Miss Evans! You are a prefect! You should have stopped it!"

Lily opened her mouth to say something in defense, but McGonnagal was not finished. "And you Black! Always in the center of every trouble!" Finally her attention traveled to Harry, who was still breathing heavily.

"Mr. Bradley, are you all right?"

Harry nodded, not quite able to say anything yet.

"Very well. You all have detention this evening! And twenty points from Gryffindor for each of you! Fighting like this!" With that she turned on her heels and strode away.

Harry couldn't help feeling that they got away relatively easily. As if she had something else on her mind...

For a moment all four of them just looked at each other, unable to say anything more. McGonnagal's sudden appearance gave them chance to calm at least a bit. It was Harry who spoke finally, sounding really tired know.

"Look, I don't want to fight, ok.? Let's make a deal. My silence for your silence, just like that."

James looked as if he was considering the proposition for a moment. He glanced towards Lily, who just stared at them wide-eyed, clearly not understanding what was going on.

But Sirius had none of it. He took a step forward, his fists clenched.

"You think you will get away with this like that, Bradley? You think you can blackmail us? I swear to you, you will regret this. We are not going to keep it quiet. Remus... he did nothing wrong! And you, you are freaking _parselmouth!_ We SAW you on Saturday! And we know that someone from Hogwarts was involved in the attack!"

He paused for a breath, while Harry's was desperately trying to figure out something to make them believe him.

"Look..." he started. "I- I don't know what to say. I don't want to blackmail you, I just can't let everyone know about this... Can you at least wait? Can we talk about it later?" _When Hermione is back,_ Harry added silently. She would know how to convince them...

"Later?" Sirius asked incredously. "Later! After you run away to You-Know-Who? After you kill another person? Fat chance of that!"

Harry took step back under Sirius' accusatory stare.

"I haven't killed anyone..." he said silently. "I... I know how it looks. You guys have no reason to trust me, I understand that. Let's go somewhere more private, to our dorm for example? I will try to explain everything. If you don't believe me, we will go straight to Dumbledore, I promise. I just... It's really complicated."

James and Sirius looked at each other, unsure what to make of this new proposition. Was it some sort of trap?

Lily saw their expressions and decided to take matters in her own hands.

"I don't know what Harry was on about, but if I understand correctly, it's something very unpleasant about Remus' absences, right? You don't want it public. So I think it would be much better if we did as Harry said, for all concerned".

She took Harry's and Sirius hand, not bothering about surprised looks all three boys sent in her direction and simply dragged them behind her. James followed.

* * *

Hermione barely managed to catch up with Snape and other Slytherins.

"Wait!" she shouted, wand in her hand.

"What do you want?" Snape answered warily, too confused by all that happened to actually act in his usual charming way.

"I... have you told them?" she asked.

"What bussiness of yours it is?" he retorted, instead of replying.

"Please, just answer my question!" she almost shouted. In any other circumstances Snape would sneer at her and laugh in her face, refusing to do anything a Gryffindor _mudblood_ demanded. But now... her brother was a _parselmouth_. Severus just didn't know what to think. Slowly, he shook his head.

"Good." Hermione said and before Severus ahd chance to do anything she shoot stunning spell at Nott. Van Hollen took out his wand and was about to send some curse at the girl, when someone behind shouted: "_Petrificus Totalus_".

"Ron?" Hermione shouted, turning around. "You left Harry? But..."

"He'll manage, Hermione, he's been through worse. And I was not going to let you stay alone with this git." Ron replied simply. Hermione huffed at the implied suggestion that she wouldn't manage to deal with few Slytherins, but then Snape finally gathered his wits and shoot a disarming spell at her. Her wand flew rapidly to dark haired boy and Hermione lost balance, but Ron caught her in last moment with his left hand. He held her and in exactly the same moment he pointed his wand at Snape and shouted:

"_Accio_ Hermione's wand."

Spell worked and soon enough Hermione was armed again. Ron, however, didn't let her go.

Snape watched them both for a while, suddenly scared of what they wanted from him. He held his wand steadily, ready to defend himself if necessary.

"Snape," Hermione said. "I want to ask you not to repeat what you saw to anyone. I know that it's a lot, but please... It's important." She looked at him searchingly.

"Why should I do it?" Snape asked with a snort.

Hermione watched him for a moment and then spoke.

"We could help you if you help us. For example, with revenge on Potter and Black. We don't like them, you don't like them – we could join our efforts for one, good prank. And to have them leave you alone..."

Slytherin stared at her, clearly surprised by her proposition. However, before he had a chance to answer, Ron suddenly let Hermione go and looked at her as if she had gone mad.

"Are you crazy, Hermione? You are going to trust him with this? He is bloody Death Eater in training! He will tell You-Know-Who, that's what you should worry about, not if he spreads it around the school or not!"

"Ron!" Hermione shouted. "Shut up! Are you crazy, talking about this?"

Snape slowly advanced to them, his wand lowered.

"How... how do you know that name?" he asked uncertainly.

Ron blinked in surprise, not understanding what Snape was talking about, but Hermione elbowed him in the ribs and started to talk, before Ron had a chance to say anything stupid.

"How do you think, Snape?" she asked in a silky voice. "It's rather obvious, isn't it?"

Snape gaped at her, his eyes wide like saucers, but Hermione didn't let him say anything.

"Now, this was to remain secret, so I trust you will not talk about what you witnessed to _anyone_, am I making myself clear? Our Lord would not be pleased. And by anyone, I mean your friends here as well!"

"Yes..." Snape replied shakily, to stunned to say anything.

"Good. Now go! We are heading back too."

And with that, Hermione turned around, dragging bewildered Ron with her.


End file.
